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We have all heard the lines from technology salesmen. “Putting in our <fill in blank> solution will save you thirty percent per year in communication costs.” You may also hear other key phrases like “increase your bottom line” or “wouldn't it be great if”. Other times they will zing a few acronyms past you like ROI (return on investment) or TCO (total cost of ownership). Don't become a zombie from a few acronyms. You may inadvertently spark a geek feeding frenzy.
If your job is managing a company or department, you make decisions on how to spend money, the priorities on projects and who gets what. All these decisions of course must be filtered through the lens of company goals. There is no doubt that eventually you will have to deal with geeks or technology salesmen. This article will give you some tips on how to best handle technology projects and get the most out of your technical staff and technology in general.
First, change how you see technology. Technology (computers/networks etc.) is a tool. Not unlike a pickup truck to a company that delivers wood. Technology is not an “investment”. Technology does NOT pay you back. It is a necessary expense. The point is to match your technology to your business goals. Seek solutions that are not encumbered with unused features. Electric seats in a lumber delivery truck are simply not necessary. Adding complexity to the goal of delivering wood to a customer is not a good business decision.
Now that you see technology for what it is, the rest of this article will follow easily.
Everyone has a motive. Geeks tend to pursue technologies like a mountain climber pursues a mountain. “It's there, I must understand it”. They will carry with them a list of “pet projects” that they are interested in. Allowing technical staff to investigate “pet projects” on company time is a choice you may make to maintain their sanity, but do not allow it to be anything more than a moral booster or basic research and development. In other words, don't allow a pet project to become a company project without other compelling reasons.
Salespeople are not consultants. Technology salespeople have exactly the same goals as any other salesperson. They want you to purchase their stuff. The only difference is that a technology salesperson has a weapon that many other industries do not have. Their product is intimidating. Purchasers feel inept when it comes to technology, and that plays very well into the hand of a salesperson.
So, how do you handle a project that will involve technology? This is a difficult question to answer without an example. Therefore, we will use “Disaster Recovery” as the example for the Widget company.
Determine the goal of the business. The ultimate goal of the Widget company is to get Widgets into the hands of users.
Then determine the key elements of that goal. 1. Generate interest (marketing). 2. Ship widgets to distributors. 3. Account for those Widgets and bill accordingly. 4. Create Widgets. Next, you would request the key functions from each of those departments and what is required for them to function. The department heads would provide those functions with a priority as well as a cost per hour for a function to be unavailable.
As you can see, we are getting into an area that can be a bit complex and really requires a person to procure this information. The point is that a technical person is generally NOT the person you want doing this function. You want an organized project manager to gather and compile this information. What should result is a list of prioritized functions and their cost to the company's goals.
This is where you contact a technology provider. You provide them with a list of functions along with an acceptable “down time” and ask them to provide the technical portion of the solution, or HOW to achieve these goals. Now your technical staff or outsourced provider can do what they do best.
When you provide a list like this to a technology salesperson, they will generally look at it and immediately defer to a technician. The technician will devise a method for achieving your goal and (if it's outsourced) the salesperson will put a price sticker on the solution. If it's in-house, request the technical staff provide a list of requirements (man hours and materials) and procedure for accomplishing the goal. The purchasing agent should be capable of providing the materials cost and the man hours should provide you with an cost for the solution.
Now, compare the solution cost with the cost of downtime. Sounds easy doesn't it? Too many times, we place projects in the lap of technicians that require skills that they simply do not have. This is where we make the mistake most often. We really need to employ a project manager to divide the project in a manner that is most effective. This person may already be in your company, or you may want to hire a consultant. Make sure that the consultant does not have a vested interest in anything other than solving your problem.
If we want to get the most out of technology, we must form the goals first. Determine the value to the company of those goals. Then review and compare various methods of achieving that goal. All the while searching for the most “efficient” way of getting there. Don't allow technology to lead you, use the technologies to solve real business problems.
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