Ultimately, outsourcing all technology management to your IT vendor is impossible. Some IT decisions are actually business decisions, and they can’t be made by an outsourced IT company. The buck just doesn’t stop there.

A server needs to be upgraded; the network needs to be rebuilt; the 3-letter-acronym du jour is broken. The decisions on how to handle these situations require executive involvement, and in many cases, these executives don’t feel comfortable making the decision.

The result is that they decide not to decide. They take a defensive position and only fix the things that are entirely broken. This usually leads to bigger expenses and more downtime. Even worse, technology becomes a utility, not a tool, and the performance edge they could have had is lost.

Mission Critical Systems wants to help business executives make the best possible decisions. These principles help them do so.

1. Make the decision a business decision, not an IT decision. Clients should not be charged with troubleshooting a problem. The Outsourced IT vendor should identify solutions, and bring budgets, risks, and options to the client. The client can then decide which solution fits their business plan, risk tolerance, and cash flow best. This helps avoid the tendency to throw money at a problem.
2. Gather plenty of the right kind of information. When possible, IT should provide a full explanation of the situation, but a layman’s understanding can also help. We don’t overwhelm our clients with technical details, but we do explain the context, accurately represent the risks, and we set good expectations for time frame and budget.
3. When considering new projects, establish goals (step 1), then set requirements (step 2), and finally look at products (step 3). Our Virtual CIOs help to define the criteria evaluating new solutions and apply the product to the problem—not the other way around.
4. Never buy a toy. This is frequently the end result of confusing principle 3. A product and sales pitch might sound really good, but if the problem isn’t well quantified before getting into the bells and whistles, then the criteria for the decision can become arbitrary. Also, IT should start with problems and end with solutions to maintain the IT strategy and avoid chasing distractions.
5. Don’t just get involved when budgets need to be approved. Constant communication between IT and the client is crucial to keeping the IT strategy in line with the business plan. IT should be responsive to changes in the business needs and should be responsible for bringing automation and advantages to the company. IT can’t do that if the client’s attitude toward IT is “set it and forget it.”

Our Virtual CIO’s provide strategic advice to executive management, helping IT to match business plans and objectives. Their perspective helps business managers make good decisions about IT investments and get the most of their IT budget.

Please contact us about Denver Outsourced IT.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 2:16 pm and is filed under IT Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.