Key Indicators For Whether Your Company Is A Prospect For An IT Infrastructure Project

How do you know for sure whether your company is a prime candidate for any changes/improvements to your IT infrastructure?  First understand that you shouldn't expect a sudden epithany ... it won't be obvious.  You'll have work to do to figure it out for sure.  If you wait for a sudden flash of enlightment .... it's already too late.

 As for every business it will be different. What are you looking to do to the infrastructure? Does your  company want new computers/need new computers? Are the end users complaining? Does your company want to move to the cloud? There are many different questions you can ask your company to get a feel for what the biggest pain in the market is. Once you find out this pain, you can begin to look for the solution to the pain . If the pain is end user computers are slow and there is lost productivity, you can talk to the company about an upgrade to Windows 7 (provided the computers are on XP still). I guess the answer is, there are MANY indicators that could be used to classify whether your business is a prospective candidate for an infrastructure project.

Use the following golden rules as a template and survey your company as to whether they have defined their needs in accordance with them.

You may need to assist key decision makers in the definitions. When you can say they are ready to select their tools (Step 3) then your company will be a candidate for IT infrastructure projects.

1. An electronic computer software package is not a system. One cannot acquire a system by acquiring computer capability.

2. One acquires a system by conducting systems analysis, achieving a design and processes by working with the people who will run the system. This is hard work and time consuming. Processes are improved and made more efficient by modifying user behavior not by automating it.

3. Once system and analysis and system design are complete one chooses tools to assist in running the system. The adequacy of a computer tool is driven by the requirements of the most efficient system design.

4. The biggest mistake implementation teams make is to believe they are buying a system when they buy a software tool or let the software drive the systems analysis process. That is like asking a mechanic to drive a wrench from New York to St. Louis. It has resulted in millions of dollars wasted and plummeting efficiency in many organizations, large and small.

5. It is necessary to design a system and processes unique to the company to meet user requirements before going shopping for computer tools. If you do not you will be pigeon-holing your company into a COTS mentality and become a slave to the company that owns the source code. If you want anything changed it costs a big buck.
 
Here is a possible checklist you can use to guide you through the process ......

1. Is your company looking at expansion into new line of business / geography and need IT to support it   e.g. new App servers, datacentres, network equipment, db servers can be pitched.

2. Is your company looking at improving business or technology process efficiency and looking at IT to do it e.g. EAI / Web services / virtualization can be pitched

3. Is your company looking at reducing IT spend/Revenue ratio %   e.g. cloud services, datacentre can be pitched

4. Has your company gone through a top management change / merger / regulatory compulsion (e.g. cable MSO in india)    e.g. BSS / OSS servers, digital swithes can be pitched

5. Is your company sending their top team CTO / CXO only to tech. exhibitions / roadshows / conferences ....  can be taken as an early sign.
 
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