Checklist to clean up your IT-department

Since the start of the financial crisis last summer, I observed some distinct approaches IT management used in their response to the changed situation. In an earlier blog I described already the “Alibi behavior” whereby the crisis is used to correct personnel unbalances build up over the last years. I could write about the widely spread “Ostrich behavior” of taken no decisions at all but I rather give you my favorite checklist you can apply to really clean your IT-shop.

• Doubles
  Of course you have been ordering standardization on hardware, software and operating approaches. But I bet that there is a lot to gain here to both save costs and get a more transparent operation. Keep in mind that what was too costly to standardize yesterday can be viable today because of lower costs and exchangeability of technology. Also there is a constant creep off growing special, out off bounce things entering your organization. Even under the hood of a standard ERP-solution add-on’s may prove to introduce double costs. I’m not advocating standards at all cost, just make your list of doubles and review them every month.
• Contracts
  Over time hardware and software contracts seem to get more complex and are only adjusted for the worse by addendums and side notes. Why not challenge your suppliers to come up with an up to date new contract with better market compliant constructions and prices. Suppliers will struggle but giving the option of a prolonged positive relation or a contract condemned to end soon, they get creative too. And remember: there are always alternatives. Make a list of contracts to overhaul. If your purchasing department is not up to par for this, hire a professional to get it done.
• Upgrades
  The cost of implementing releases and upgrades are becoming almost the single largest cost item in IT-operations. Especially the testing effort, also by business users, becomes unaffordable. Although here is no single standard solution to overcome this, the following rules may help:
  • don’t let suppliers be the ones that dictate the upgrades but the business requirements for upgrading
  • technology should not be the driving upgrade reason. Older software version are often good enough for the business and more stable. Support can always be found, even at a premium this may be cheaper than upgrading
  • compare costs and impact of monthly small upgrades versus yearly big ones. Make this a mandatory part of your planning process and you will be surprised about the options this opens up
  • challenge your teams by stating that they should come with an upgrade plan that includes the above elements. If not, just simply cancel three out of four proposed upgrades (very likely that the business will not notice it)
• Projects
  Still there are too many projects, projects without proper business requirements, never ending projects, and badly run projects. Portfolio analyses and rigorous project qualifications (essential must for business, nice if we can afford it, suspect to kill, totally unclear why) are the way to approach it. I did these analyses myself in the past and the outcome was always that, if truly answered, up to 75% did not belong to the essential category.
• Decide, act, measure
  All of the above us worthless if you just analyze but decide not to make a choice and subsequently act accordingly. Sometimes against a lot of contra powers and politics. KPI’s that measure the results of your decision are absolutely necessary to make it happen and to silence your opponents in both business and IT. A quality execution of less but essential things should prevail over mediocre delivering off all ever asked for. And your businesslike approach to this will always convince your senior management.

Please share me your thoughts on this.

Results2Match has a strong vision on proven and successful business management solutions and result driven implementations.

This blog is written by Hans van Nes. Hans is a very experienced interim manager and (radical) change management consultant. You can contact Hans through his Results2Match email address.