Believe it or not, doing nothing is a popular option. People often lack conviction that the solution they’ve divined will actually solve the problem. In a small business (yours or your client’s), and where problems and solutions appear simple, this behaviour can work well enough to keep the business growing. But, as a business grows and becomes more complex, it often leads to a partial solution rather than a total solution. That, in turn, leads you to blow out your costs or simply fail to deliver against the business’s greater requirements.
Eventually, though, many people do actually implement the solution they identified and priced.
This is where a new problem takes over. I run an IT services firm and frequently encounter clients or prospective clients who believe they must tell us what they need. They then expect us to deliver a price for a product or service as our first engagement.
This gives us a sale and, at first glance, looks like a great place to start. But such a sale provides only a partial solution or, worse, the wrong solution to the underlying problem or problems. So, the first action the new supplier takes ends up underwhelming the business. Then the business wonders why the IT supplier’s work fails to deliver what the business needs.
[breakoutbox][breakoutbox_title]Things to consider[/breakoutbox_title][breakoutbox_excerpt]When it comes to implementing IT into your business, first consider…[/breakoutbox_excerpt][breakoutbox_content]
When it comes to implementing IT into your business, first consider…
1. The first step is always to understand your own needs properly.
2. Invite your supplier to help define your needs.
3. Find a good IT adviser to help you steer the process.
4. Beware ad hoc, partial solutions which inflate costs and under-deliver.[/breakoutbox_content][/breakoutbox]
Understanding what the business needs is at the heart of this problem. All too often, businesses start trying to implement an IT solution without having properly understood their own needs. It’s easy to understand why they make such a mistake – properly identifying these IT needs is one of the industry’s trickiest tasks.
My suggestion: when you seek an IT solution to improve your business systems, you will do well to take your problem to suppliers and ask them to help you determine your needs and then identify the best solution.
Here is the next problem. In IT, there are multiple good solutions to any problem. How do you select the best solution from a bunch of different suppliers if you are not an IT expert?
IT is more complex today than it has ever been. The pace of change is quickening and the range of options is swelling. This is leading to more difficult decisions on each project. We are faced with multiple devices – smartphone, tablet and PC – for personal use, ‘on premises’, ‘private cloud’, ‘public cloud’, server or back-end solutions.
Throw in complex internet and private network solutions that can now incorporate phone and video solutions, and no one decision is simple.
I have not even mentioned the range of applications that we need to engage with to run a competitive business – MYOB, Quicken, Xero, Saasu and more, just in the accounting space. We face game-changing options in a global market with a few local brands dominating today that could be gone tomorrow.
There is a smart solution to this problem: make use of a ‘fractional’ chief information officer, a person with sound IT knowledge appropriate to your scale and industry, who can sit in on the decision process from inception to implementation to ensure your business gets what it needs.
This selection of a good adviser is key to your success. They will only need to be there for a few consultations while your project is being carried out.
Bear in mind that if they have the strategic skills you require, they may not work well as a tactical resource that actually delivers the solutions. To get a good strategic overview, one needs to move away from the detailed technology and the day-to-day problem solving. I know it took me years of middle management in technical environments to make the break from tactical resource to strategist.
If you are unhappy with the solutions presented, communicate your concerns with the providers so they can better learn about the problem you are trying to solve.
The message is simple: get help in taking your problem to market in a way that allows the providers to innovate on your behalf. That will ensure you get a well-thought-out solution that can help your business to achieve the success it deserves.
