Last time I introduced the concept of Less IT, More Growth™. It may seem counterintuitive, or you may be so discourgaed from over spending on IT and getting low utilization of promised value, that this idea resonates. But are options available, or is this too, another empty IT promise?
I can say unequivocally that help is here. I've worked over 30 years in both IT and business worlds and have been repeatedly disappointed by vendors promising high value and utilization, and having the reality be much, much different. Today better options are available to remove the "curse of complexity".
For a typical 5 to 50 million dollar per year revenue company, having strategic IT skills is a luxury, as is having a seasoned manager on hand. So where do you as a business owner go for IT solutions that are right for you? Without great input and a plan from these types of people, how can key IT decisions be made effectively?
The answer is, they can't and they aren't!
And the status quo - of building complex IT systems - gets perpetuated.
In that IT complexity death spiral, investment decisions are made only as a last resort and quite often resemble someone purchasing a consumer electronics appliance more than a business making a strategic investment in much needed technology. "What are the features/functions, versus "how will this component support the system I'll need to succeed 1 to 3 years from now?"
Also these decisions often don't add the soft costs of ongoing maintenance and support, the result of which is that over time, the value of the investment is substantially diminished.
So you as a small or emerging business owner will be rewarded if you come to grips with modern IT and how it can contribute to your success. Maintaining a classic server room adds complexity and often doesn't keep up with your growth needs.
Do you have unlimited resources? Read no further. You don't need TrueCloud. If you're looking for a better way, then we can help. Because without the IT skills and the investment
required to sustain a healthy operation, the mission in the traditional way is frustrating. It is in most cases an undertaking that consumes your scarce business cycles and resources that often don’t add a single dollar to the bottom line.
We recommend that you make friends with the idea of pursuing IT services from other sources in order to break the curse. The good news is there are some refreshing and affordable alternatives available.
What is required to tame the complexity beast? How does a small or emerging business like yours make the transition to less IT? (Or in some cases, avoid that path altogether?) I’ll discuss this in a several future blogs beginning with "Getting under the hood of your IT".
Thanks for reading.
Dave Rice, CEO of TrueCloud
http://www.truecloud.com.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Less IT, More Growth™
Does the IT capability you have in place feel like a dead weight around your leg, holding your business back from being all it can be? While you grow, does it seem more and more that limitations in your IT are holding you back?
Growth is good – and that can lead to IT solutions to achieve improved productivity. But it can also lead to a vicious cycle of costly, failed attempts to improve.
The more IT you have, the more complexity you introduce. The more complexity you introduce, the more skills are required to maintain the environment. The more skills that are required to maintain the environment, the more costly the environment becomes. Making matters worse, complexity is exacerbated when you keep growing and the decisions to address this growing problem are postponed.
Because of this complexity factor, business owners of emerging companies are facing a huge dilemma when it comes to deciding how and where to invest in IT. The promise of improved productivity often leads to the curse of complexity, higher costs and restrained growth. Have you seen this in your business?
So is less IT, more? And can growth be accelerated with less IT? Yes!
Your emerging business almost certainly faces the same kinds of challenges as large enterprises except that you've got fewer dollars to work with. Nonetheless, limited automation capabilities, the lack of streamlined processes and systems, poor quality data, and a gap in feature/function sets, can be huge impediments to your business growth.
Without a course correction in IT, you'll discover that you’re not going to be able to scale and grow your business without adding more hardware and heads. But the challenge is that choosing to invest in more IT invokes the "curse of complexity", which proves costly in the long run.
So reducing complexity is good. For many, it’s the old adage of killing two birds with one stone. Small and emerging business owners look to introduce more automation so they can scale and grow without adding heads, and they'd like to do it without substantial additional investment in IT.
This is a formidable challenge and requires small and emerging business owners to develop and use some different muscles and approaches when considering their IT needs. We can help make the simple less complex and more scalable. I’ll be talking more about how in the next several posts.
Thanks for reading.
Dave Rice, TrueCloud CEO
http://www.truecloud.com.
Growth is good – and that can lead to IT solutions to achieve improved productivity. But it can also lead to a vicious cycle of costly, failed attempts to improve.
The more IT you have, the more complexity you introduce. The more complexity you introduce, the more skills are required to maintain the environment. The more skills that are required to maintain the environment, the more costly the environment becomes. Making matters worse, complexity is exacerbated when you keep growing and the decisions to address this growing problem are postponed.
Because of this complexity factor, business owners of emerging companies are facing a huge dilemma when it comes to deciding how and where to invest in IT. The promise of improved productivity often leads to the curse of complexity, higher costs and restrained growth. Have you seen this in your business?
So is less IT, more? And can growth be accelerated with less IT? Yes!
Your emerging business almost certainly faces the same kinds of challenges as large enterprises except that you've got fewer dollars to work with. Nonetheless, limited automation capabilities, the lack of streamlined processes and systems, poor quality data, and a gap in feature/function sets, can be huge impediments to your business growth.
Without a course correction in IT, you'll discover that you’re not going to be able to scale and grow your business without adding more hardware and heads. But the challenge is that choosing to invest in more IT invokes the "curse of complexity", which proves costly in the long run.
So reducing complexity is good. For many, it’s the old adage of killing two birds with one stone. Small and emerging business owners look to introduce more automation so they can scale and grow without adding heads, and they'd like to do it without substantial additional investment in IT.
This is a formidable challenge and requires small and emerging business owners to develop and use some different muscles and approaches when considering their IT needs. We can help make the simple less complex and more scalable. I’ll be talking more about how in the next several posts.
Thanks for reading.
Dave Rice, TrueCloud CEO
http://www.truecloud.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
