Our Topic

“Portfolio Management”

Graeme Byrne, enterprise project management and MS Project super-guru will discuss portfolio management and how it applies to your business.  (more…)

Over the last several months I’ve been spending time working with a client’s finance department on process improvement.  While their headcount is quite small, their finance and accounting there is complex – they’re a multi-national public (SOX applies) company managing several very major projects (think $10-100 million each).

Our focus was to reduce the monkey-work and improve audit-ability and reporting in the accounting department so they can be focused on high-value work.  Would you believe Excel is one of the best tools for doing this?  (more…)

Technology can be a disruptor or accelerator for businesses.

When IT processes are immature and systems not stable, IT is a cost center; distracting and disrupting the business. Working properly, IT is transparent and works like a utility; it’s there working for you when you need it.

Only then can IT become the foundation required to greatly increase productivity, drive innovation, and become a competitive advantage to the business.

Small and medium-sized businesses often underestimate the strategic importance of investment in information technology. Most companies have a sales or marketing strategy, but neglect creating an IT strategy. A well thought out IT strategy helps align your IT spending with your company’s requirements and will develop it from a cost center into returns for the company. (more…)

Last week I spent several days with a long-term client at their US offices.  The goal of this trip was simple – get as much feedback on the “state of IT” a possible, then develop a plan to remediate any issues and execute. The end result was fantastic – great progress on all fronts and a very happy and more productive team. (more…)

Recently I was reading an interesting article called Outsourcing: 10 Crippling Mistakes IT Departments Make and found myself scratching my head. At first, I was unsure why – all 10 things they point out are definitely key issues that can seriously harm or cripple your outsourcing plans.  All of their mistakes have a very common theme, that’s see all too often:  Companies don’t treat outsourcing like getting married.

When outsourcing, you’re building a long-term relationship with a company that will be looking after computer systems (or some subset of them), protecting your data, or helping your users.  When rereading the article with the mindset of getting married (or creating a partnership) instead of buying a commodity from a vendor, most people say to themselves, “Of course you wouldn’t do ‘Penny Wise, Pound Foolish’.”

For small to mid-sized businesses thinking about outsourcing, the requirements and “crippling mistakes” are quite different.  Most SMBs don’t have strong IT metrics (there’s some basics that everyone should have) or focus heavily on incentive-based contracts. Instead, there’s a need to focus on the basics.   (more…)

The IT department is in chaos. There’s so much to do that it doesn’t seem like anyone is getting anything done, much less staying ahead. Balls are being dropped and nobody is showing leadership to the company. 

Welcome to the sad state of many IT departments around the world. All of your time is spent thrashing on day-to-day tasks, rarely even with the opportunity to look up, much less look ahead. 

Transitioning from firefighting mode to proactive support and planning is a big jump for any IT department.  In a perfect world, you could make this jump in one big leap – change everything now and start working in an all new way – but that’s not realistic. Changing from reactive to proactive, and no plan to short and long term planning is a major cultural change for both IT and the departments it services.  It takes time. 

Thankfully improvement like this is a process, not a destination.  That means we can take it in steps.  (more…)

Imagine you’re going on a road trip.  So you go out and buy a car, load it up with stuff, and head east.  Fantastic!

Some of us enjoy a simple vacation this way.  I did that once (I ended up in Disneyland, but that’s another story) a few years back and had a great time. For most people, many important questions pop up.  Where are you headed?  How are you going to get there? Did you pack the right supplies?  In this case, let’s hope that you don’t live on the east coast … (more…)

Dr Jim Anderson, of The Accidental IT Leader recently posted an article talking about the growing trend of high turnover in IT, and the realities that IT leaders need to face with it.

While I agree that specialization needs to reduce in IT departments, and cross-training is key, one of the keys to retention is to have people constantly growing into new roles. When you plan and focus on growth throughout your department, it’s much easier to have the best talent stay engaged. (more…)

Every company does a different level of disaster recovery and business continuity planning.  That’s completely appropriate – smaller companies with less technology dependency (and process maturity) do not require as thorough of a disaster recovery plan.

This past week I’ve been dealing with a very challenging disaster scenario.

The company in question is reasonably technology dependent, but not very sophisticated (lots of data, few automated processes, not a complex technology environment).  They have a solid backup system, a proper GFS rotation which includes off-site storage, and plenty of spare hardware in case of a major failure.  They’re doing everything correctly for a company of their sophistication.

What do you do when something falls outside of your disaster recovery plan? (more…)