The stories you are about to read are true.  The names have been changed to protect those who don’t want you to know how bad things really are.

Company “A” through mergers and acquisitions, has gone through some exponential growth in the past few years.  As a result of this, their Technology Assets have grown.  Now here is where it gets interesting. 

For the first part of their upward climb they had some Information Technology (IT) guys who decided that a particular type of network architecture (servers, workstations & operating system) was the only way to handle things.  For a variety of reasons those guys have since moved on so Company “A” went and found a new of IT guys who of course decided that a different type of network architecture was the only way to handle things.  Add to this mixed brew the fact that some of the companies they absorbed were using a totally different type of network architecture.

Well now they have a new set of IT guys who aren’t quite sure of where to start.  What is wrong with these new guys you ask?  Well one reason is that they have inherited a situation where there are dozens of servers and hundreds of workstations, some of which can’t easily share data.  And since knowledge is power, this is a very bad thing.  Add to that the fact that the folks who control the purse strings are “just plain sick and tired of having to spend additional money on IT.”

Company “B” while not going through the same explosive growth as Company “A” they did become large enough to have outgrown the capabilities of their previous IT guy (a bookkeeper who secretly calls their spouse for advice on how to fix their IT problems).

Over the course of the next eight months Company “B” goes through six IT Companies and one young entrepreneur who was freelancing.  They are now looking for their seventh IT Company.  The young entrepreneur for some reason always forgot to show up when the weather was really nice or there was snow on the mountains during ski season.

Wondering how two apparently successful companies could end up in these situations?  That my friends is exactly where this tale has been heading (I hope neither of these scenarios sounds familiar to you).

A coherent IT Strategy and clearly defined expectations would have gone a long way toward preventing both situations.

A coherent IT Strategy is one that is closely aligned with your Business Strategy and does many things for you.  Some of the more important ones are,

1. it forces you to actually plan,
2. it gives you something to benchmark where you are in your plan and,
3. it gives you a way to determine what is the right way for your particular situation, i.e., if your Business Strategy requires using a specific software application and that software only runs on one operating system, then that is the right way for that situation.
4. it gives you the ability to assess new technologies based on your needs, not the whims of the IT guys who always want the latest and greatest toys to play with (trust me on this. I used to be one).

Clearly defined expectations should be self explanatory.  If you aren’t sure what you expect, then no matter how talented your IT guys are they are probably going to get it wrong.  And they will continue to get it wrong until you both get on the same page.

For Company “A” having an IT Strategy would have allowed them to include their increasing technology needs as part of their Business Strategy sessions.  This in turn would have ensured that their IT guys were doing those things that were the most beneficial to the business, and not things influenced by their own personal preferences.  They would have known what to expect from their IT guys and the IT guys would have known what was expected of them.  Lastly when new technologies emerged that make us all say “wow” they would have had something to measure it against.  If it is something that gets them closer to their goals, then they would obviously take a good look at adopting it.  If not then they could throw it in the dust heap with all the other can’t miss great ideas.

Company “B” instead of clearly defining their expectations, they decided that continuing to do the same things that hadn’t worked for them in the past would eventually give them the results they needed.  Once again having an IT Strategy would have allowed them to include their increasing technology needs as part of their Business Strategy.  That would also have allowed them to better gage what specific skills they needed to look for in their IT Company.

As for defining expectations, the obvious ones would be is,

1. should a technician required on standby 24/7? 
2. If not what is the normal response time for a trouble call? 
3. What is the emergency response time? 
4. What really constitutes an emergency? 
5. Is there a single Point of Contact, or can anyone submit a trouble call?  Will there be scheduled routine maintenance? 

You get the picture.

So in closing the moral of this story is, that your Business Objectives drives your Business Strategy.  The Business Strategy then drives the IT Objectives which in turn drives the IT Strategy.

In other words, Ready, Aim, Fire works much better than Ready, Fire, Aim.  If you intend on hitting the target.