Efficient Management of IT in Non IT Companies

[sgeor01]

Though IT is a significant component of any company strategy it finds itself as one of the major areas for cost cutting during tough financial times for the company. We may need to revisit this approach by many companies. It may seem as appropriate measure to cut IT spending. But by diving deeper into the logic of doing so; we may find inherent problems associated with timely delivery of successful IT projects to business.
A deeper investigation into IT projects show that only 35 to 40% are successfully executed on time within budget. Many short terms projects end up consuming big budgets and don’t provide the sufficient value to the business. Some simple steps that could help convert projects to a success. The approaches are as follows:
1. Well defined Project Management Office.
The Project Management Office is responsible for defining and ensuring that standard as well as efficient management practices are being implemented in every project undertaken in the organization. A mature PMO will be able to define to practices based on the nature of the project being executed in the organization. When organization lack well established PMO it entrusts the PM to execute projects based on their understanding and experience which creates variable results in project execution. Without a functional unit to train and administer management practices, the success of project management in such organization is very low as it is person dependent. Proper focus on templates, resuability, standards will not exist. A PMO will be able to over come these limitations and help IT to deliver projects on time and within budget. The PMO will be able to constantly assess the projects and provide feedback that could help PM to make corrective actions immediately. This will help PMs to bring projects on track.

2. Frequent training of Project Managers and PM forums.
Many IT Project Managers learn management practices through each project they execute and the issues they face during the execution. This costs the company quite often because the success of these projects are low which affect business on the long term. By constant training these managers will be able to implement project practices effectively in each project they execute. Trainings enable PM to sharpen their management skills. It also helps them to fast track their knowledge to handle bigger and complex projects in short span of time.
Forums helps PM to share their experience and this will provide great learning curves for other PM. They will be able to address common issues that limit their day to day work. The PMO could host such forums and document the learnings so that it could be passed on to junior managers with ease.

3. Develop long term IT visions and road map.
It is highly imperative that long term IT vision be established to help business improve their day to day operations. It will also help companies to identify critical projects to be undertaken for the current year to help the business. Once long term business IT vision is established it will help better utilization of IT team to develop critical applications. Also it will help business to enhance and build their business process. A long term vision will provide guidelines to track the status of current projects and also revisit the plans if any current active projects fall off track.

4. Establish strong communication medium between business and IT team
There needs to be strong understanding between the business and IT teams. This will ensure that they collectively deliver benefits to the company. For IT team to deliver projects on time they will need to get the requirements from the business on time. If the business doesnot deliver the baselined requirements on time the IT team will not be able to deliver the projects on time. This limits the efficiency of the IT team to help add value to the business.

5. Overcome Infrastructure limitations
Companies need to uplift the infrastructure they have to meet the business requirements. The long term IT vision will help senior management to identify the infrastructure requirements for the company and make necessary investment to obtain them. Business requirement should define what infrastructure should be made available in the company. IT team should prepare details on what infrastructure is required to help business reach the next level.

6. Usage of latest technologies
To expand business opportunities companies need to utilize the best technology available in the market to its fullest. The business and IT will need to work together to determine which technology will suit their purpose. Web technologies should be used to expand business opportunities. Online marketing will help bring customers to the company.

7. Develop loosely coupled applications for enhancement or integration of newer applications
Loosely coupled application will allow companies to replace old existing applications with modernized applications that offer great new features and high level of automation for the business to use them. Application developed in legacy system are usually tightly coupled thus making it difficult to integrate new applications into existing applications. This requires creation of interfaces. When there is a change to existing application it requires change to newly integrated application. Maintenance of tightly coupled applications is pretty expensive. Applications should be classified based on the business domain. This will allow grouping of applications and help build a common interface to allow other application data to flow this interface to the grouped ones.

[SteveDavidson]

Originally Posted by sgeor01

Though IT is a significant component of any company strategy it finds itself as one of the major areas for cost cutting during tough financial times for the company. We may need to revisit this approach by many companies. It may seem as appropriate measure to cut IT spending.

Interestingly, it's often possible to cut overall spending while improving output, quality, speed and the employee experience. Almost every place which has weathered changes of management, policy, and procedure has accumulated the equivalent of 'process cruft', where old processes are modified by the minimum amount necessary to match new requirements. Over time, people find themselves going through the most time-and-money-wasting contortions in order to produce a result, simply because "it's always been done that way".

In areas with very high turnovers, especially, staff often move on before they have time to thoroughly analyze why something is done in a certain way, and management aren't exposed to the procedures often enough for them to register on their radar.

It's amazing what a little process analysis and cleanup can do. I've personally deflated operating costs of private companies and major government department teams by up to 80% without needing any staff retraining, just by noting inefficiencies in the workflow 'plumbing' in places it was no-one's job to check. That can add up to six or seven figures annually, depending on the team.

(Usually, I'll also recommend that part of the savings be spent on measures to retain staff and improve conditions, thus preventing valuable experience from jumping ship in uncertain economic times while still delivering a significant windfall.)

So to managers who are having their budgets cut, or who are having to do the cutting, I say this: call me, or someone like me, and at least see if you could be cutting your costs instead of your profits.