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Smart-tactics - simply improve
your business
Get your IT strategy right
Over many years I have been
involved in dozens, if not hundreds, of IT projects. I
have seen millions spent on all manner of hardware,
software and services from the mundane to the exotic.
In most cases these projects had been justified by
cost savings, or performance increases. But if I were
truthful, I can't say that I recall too many people
being asked to account for savings later. Maybe they
happened, maybe not. For the truth is that as long as
some progress was made it was enough.
In fact an unwritten rule of the IT market is that
"What IT investment will generate, is new IT
investment".
An example: In the early 1980's I was selling the concept
of the 'paperless office', if you are old enough you
might recall it. At its heart was word-processing, a
new revolution. No more filing cabinets, no more paper
documents, fewer typists - what savings!
We all know how useful word-processing is, we
all have it, but with the proliferation of PCs,
printers and paper there are sure to be no savings.
Today we have fewer typists, but more secretaries, and
- with most people doing their own typing - a lot more
time spent typing.
Expense was granted under one set of rules and
then the IT changed the rules.
In today's businesses IT expense is seen as
pre-requisite, but without careful control it can become
an expensive luxury without benefit.
For many businesses the IT
strategy is for the IT department head to develop, after
their budget is assigned. But this is exactly the wrong
thing to do. IT departments support the business, and
given more funds will support it better - but won't
change it to meet new goals unless they are guided to do
that.
Given the responsibility to keep the systems going it
is no surprise that an IT managers wish list will be
something like. More backup and resilience (so it won't
break), system upgrades (so it won't break, to do more
of the same, and to make users happier) and more staff
to service the systems and users.
Having happier users and greater
levels of backup may be the on the CEO's list, but they
are unlikely to be the only things on the
list.
When I took over the running of a
successful business, I realised that my perspective
changed. Rather than having departmental responsibility,
I was now in the hot-seat, and I wanted to know what
every department was generating to the whole - and how
they could improve.
We had a strategy, and most
department heads could describe how they could improve
to meet the challenges of the future. Those that
couldn't were the 'support' functions of Accounts and
IT. Both of these said that they followed the trends and
supported success as they happened, that's OK. But the
IT department was also planning to spend massively on an
upgrade - that would do nothing but support where we
were today.
That upgrade did not happen, although we did spend
the allocated funds. We bought a new system that set the
business forward years. We were able to use the system
change as a catalyst to re-invent the business from top
to bottom. No department was left unchanged, some
functions disappeared, others created. In the first year
we managed a 50% increase in turnover before we needed
to hire again!
We did this by setting an IT
strategy to control and drive investments where the
business needed them, and as a catalyst for our other
strategies.
I believe that businesses with a
distinct IT section to their strategy spend less or get
a better payback. Either way they are in
control.
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