I’ve touched on this subject before. The vast majority of transitional, or transformative, changes to a business and the way it operates will, in today’s commerce, mean overhauling at least, and possibly rebuilding, the I.T.
My role is not to identify the changes you may need to make to your business. Depending on the scale of the task your project managers, or external change management experts, will guide you through that process.
If the job has been done properly you will have recognised that new methods are necessary to meet the demands of a new market sector, or manufacture a new product. Good change management will have established where those changes need to be made, and how the structure of your organisation need to be adjusted to implement them.
Now comes the point where my specialism enters the frame. It will be I.T. guidance and design that delivers those changes. But, here's the thing. A real expert will manage your expectations from the outset. Indeed the earlier someone like me is involved the better because, put simply, having established the concept of what’s required you could still be a long way off its implementation.
This is not about slowing down the process to make for a bigger or longer contract. Neither is it about surrounding the ‘dark arts of I.T.’ with smoke and mirrors. On the contrary, its about clarity from day one.
There will be numerous tasks to be carried out that are not immediately apparent. Licenses may need to be purchased and negotiated. Hardware specification is another potentially lengthy procurement process.
A rigorous examination of ‘off the shelf’ or ‘out of the box’ solutions will need to be carried out. If there is a ready made solution a comparison of costs is essential, but so too is a testing of suitability. A ready made solution may deliver a short term fix of cost effectiveness, only to flounder soon after installation because it couldn't deliver the precise facilities that a tailor made solution could have. That tailor made solution may take longer to develop, but its initial time consumption and set up costs could be easily ameliorated over a relatively short operational time.
If I’m involved early on in a process, often working alongside change management specialists, I can often not only form a clearer picture of what I.T. will be needed to meet the objectives, I can inform a client of likely timescales from the start, which makes for better overall project management. And, even if the timescales are a little longer than at first assumed, the cost benefits often outweigh that.
As carpenters say, ‘measure twice, cut once’. It goes for I.T. too. Let’s take time, because you want it to be right.