It doesn’t matter how big or small a business is, nor the industry they are in, frequently we see clients from start-ups to world-class global entities, sometimes struggling with the same underlying project issues that often stem from their first planning steps into go-to-market strategies applying the right balance of governance in each case.
Procurement
Go to market issues are often the root cause of digital transformation pitfalls, causing significant issues for major programs of work.
Think about all the applications you might need for a growing company. Rarely do you need (or can afford) to implement them all at the same time. Paired with the hectic and erratic nature of daily operations and business growth, planning for future systems does not even crop up as an afterthought. And so, clients come to us with a variety of systems, each installed at different times for a distinct purpose – usually acquired upon realisation it was needed yesterday.
With a company that is not used to the separate and often complicated application landscapes – different systems can become quickly mired in a complex web of operations that no one knows how to control, especially not the individual suppliers. You will find each is an expert in their own product, but little else. Pin-pointing a sole source of responsibility is like finding a needle in a haystack.
The entire process can be ground to a halt over time to what is lovingly referred to as a “software hairball” and can inhibit a team to run at its best, or in some cases, we have seen – at all. With everything coming to a standstill, this can have a detrimental impact on a company’s productivity, reputation, and revenues.
So, where to from here?
In our experience, we find that clients get the best result when their software applications are all integrated with each other so that they provide support for the company instead of issues.
When companies find themselves in the all too familiar situation, a clear procurement strategy with distinct phases of roll-out is essential to optimise a businesses’ key systems. When we implement this with our clients, we see them reap the rewards of increased business productivity, performance, and sales, as well as having a far better ability to make decisions based on more accurate, live information.
Outsourcing IT
When deciding that your software needs an overhaul, outsourcing integration to consultants with specific subject matter expertise can pay dividends in both the time and cost of rolling out such a project. While internal teams do brilliant jobs of supporting and maintaining in house systems, the magnitude of a digital transformation project is often unrealized. In our experience, we see that clients get the most benefits from outsourcing these tasks to people with the subject matter expertise and decades of proven experience. The benefit of this also includes the fact that your internal staff can build on their current knowledge and even be mentored by the consultants you bring on, improving staff performance over time.
Support Agreements
A support agreement is just that; an agreement to work together with a consultant to best support the rollout of, and then the long-term maintenance of new systems. An agreement will outline what exactly is to be expected from your support team, the period they will deliver this support for, and include the associated costs for all activities. Without a support agreement, there is no documented understanding of what you expect from suppliers and what they will provide to you, or how much it will cost. This can make it difficult, if not impossible, to ensure you are getting the exact services that you need and makes it hard to predict how much it will cost you.
Another side benefit of this is risk management. With the many potential risks facing modern business including computer interruption, data privacy issues, and data protection issues, threats from viruses, hackers, potential hardware, and software faults or even your own staff can pose a significant business risk. Through a support agreement you mitigate these risks and your supplier should help you understand them through periodic reporting and business-focused meetings.
Handling all parties through a single supplier
With so many companies involved in a business’s technology, high-level management and executives might not necessarily have the bandwidth to manage all these relationships. We utilise our experience in project management and delivery with our clients, acting as external IT managers throughout the project, coordinating all these vendors on our client’s behalf. This reduces the number of times clients must spend chasing down companies and getting them to deliver adequate support and makes our job easier as we can communicate directly with vendors, bringing all the pieces of the puzzle back in one place, and fitting them together with ease.
Talk to us today to see how our integrated solutions supported by best practice consultants can transform your business environment and governance models moving forward.