Small Business Advisor
Information Technology: You Gotta Have A Plan
As I was listening to the radio the other night in my home office, finishing the work I wasn't able to finish in my "real" office, a reporter stated that Alan Greenspan has credited information technology (IT) for the robust economy. Apparently Mr. Greenspan attributes to technology the emergence of strong growth without inflation. It's a pretty safe bet that some business owners might question Mr. Greenspan's analysis.
Let's use the case of the hypothetical business owner, I.B. Hurtin, as an example. Mr. Hurtin just spent $20,000 on a hardware and software upgrade. While he appreciates that his investment has contributed to the economy as a whole, he can't quite figure out how this upgrade contributed to his own business. Mr. Hurtin has no technology plan but contracted for the upgrade because "it seemed like a good idea at the time."
Mr. Hurtin's competitor, Ned Wurth, has taken a more strategic approach to his IT investments. Ned, president of Ned's Professional Services (NPS), keeps his business plan up to date by holding annual planning retreats with his executive team. The NPS business plan provides Ned and his team with a sharp focus on three key strategies that are critical to reaching this year's goals. Following is a list of those strategies:
Increase collaboration with alliance partners.
Improve communication among NPS consultants, who are on the road much of the time.
Improve management and control of projects.
Ned and his team analyzed these three strategies and identified technology initiatives that supported each one. To increase collaboration with alliance partners, they identified ideas to standardize on versions of common software packages. They also identified projects to link information on NPS's web site with the web sites of their alliance partners. Finally, they identified some web-based marketing exchanges on which they posted profiles that highlighted the combined capabilities of NPS and their alliance partners.
To improve communications among NPS's highly mobile consultants, they identified collaboration software that can allow the consultants to view calendars, exchange "lessons learned" from projects, and share templates of certain project deliverables.
To improve management and control of projects, the NPS team identified software that ran on their consultants' hand-held computers to provide "real time" tracking of time spent on projects. The software also allows the consultants to upload their time to both their accounting and project management software. Next, the NPS team identified the need to upgrade to the latest version of the project management software loaded on each consultant's laptop. This, in turn, highlighted the need to upgrade the memory on all the laptops. However, the current laptop hardware seemed adequate for this year, and no replacements were needed.
The NPS team also took a look at the "housekeeping" component of their IT environment and found it somewhat lacking. The tape backup system was nearing capacity and needed to be upgraded. Their processes for updating their anti-virus software needed some refinement, but no new hardware or software was required. They also determined that their operating systems and server hardware were adequate for now and did not require an update this year.
Ned and his executive team then compiled a list of all these projects and opportunities and prioritized them by their urgency and by the extent to which they supported the three strategies. All "A" priority projects were estimated and put in the budget for this year. A contingency budget was established for handling some of the "B" projects that could become more important during the year.
NPS developed a succinct IT plan which supports their overall business plan. They were now prepared to continue to clean I.B. Hurtin's clock and to prove once more that Alan Greenspan is NEVER wrong.
Ron Montgomery has worked in Information Technology (IT) for 23 years. Ron is president of two IT service businesses, Montgomery Consulting Group and On Point. Phone: 816.224.4100 or e-mail at rmontgomery@mcgproj.com.