How many times a week do you key ‘www.’ in your web-browser? Or how many web addresses have you already stored in your favorites so you don’t need to type them anymore?

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Today the World Wide Web is the only real world wide application that doesn’t have a single competitor. There is no other www-something offering the same or a similar platform to publish and share useful knowledge, information, insights and entertainment on its upside and a considerable load of garbage on its downside – you choose which side you are interested in.  All other applications, programs and platforms we already consider to be world-wide such as Microsoft Windows and Office, Google, Internet Explorer, Skype, etc. are just software and have their competitors, offering alternatives which we can consider or ignore. Even Facebook starts with www and has competitors.

 

While the “world” has adopted one single web to work with and to retrieve its information from, many companies and businesses still have various, non-interrelated systems and information sources in place resulting in an “Island-IT landscape” where more often than not the bridges between the different islands are made of hard-copy paper, excel spreadsheets or word documents. HR has its platform, Accounting has its software and Production has its system, but they are not interlinked, not connected one to another. While nobody would question the advantages of the instant access to information on the web, companies still spend time searching for and gathering information together from books, spreadsheets, tables and lists to finally check the data, do calculations and consolidate the information into reports, charts and graphics whose presentation to Management will take a fraction of the time it took to generate them.

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There are many reasons for a company to end up with an Island-IT landscape. Lack of company-wide overall IT strategy and coordination, powerful individual business units enjoying too much freedom in running their own developments or software purchases, or the acquisition of businesses that already have their own systems, just to mention some of them. But there is one good reason to eliminate the Island-IT structure and move IT Operation to the mainland – Efficiency and Cost Saving through Transparency and immediate Visibility. Isn’t it amazing and at the same time of some concern, that you can instantly check on the web what is going on anywhere in the world, but when you want to analyze some consolidated figures of your own business you may have to wait a few hours or even a day or two to get the data and information you need?

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Time is money and to stay competitive, businesses need to invest in speed so to have accurate figures available at any time allowing people in charge to give the right answers, to make the right decisions on the spot. Imagine you call your airline to book a seat and the staff tells you in all kindness that she has to check availability and will call you back. While this sounds kind of prehistoric, “I have to check (capacity)” is still a very common answer in Thai manufacturing businesses when a customer wants to place an order, while the answer should only be a few mouse clicks away.

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The big question is how to get there. You basically have three roads you can go. You either have, or think you have, the people among your staff who know enough about your company and all related processes within the organization and have the vision on how all the pieces could or should be connected and brought together into one framework. In addition that staff of yours or yourself are expert enough to know all the software solutions available in the market so to pick the solution that fits and supports your actual and future business best. Furthermore, you and your staff have experience in project management, the key to a smooth and timely implementation of the project, ensuring an effective cost management and guaranteeing the earliest possible implementation so you can benefit from the advantages and the efficiency of the new integrated system as soon as possible. Last but not least, you and your staff have the necessary time available that needs to be dedicated to your project in order to make it successful. If you are equipped with all the above requirements, then you may choose the ‘do it yourself’ method. But with all due respect, the chances are likely that you are not familiar with or do not have the expertise in at least some of the mentioned aspects. A relevant survey conducted by the Standish Group (2003) shows that 66% of IT projects are either totally abandoned or fail against a measure of budget, scope, time or quality – you don’t want to end up in these 66%.

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The second method is to realize that it can’t be done without additional staff, so you hire some programmers, a system analyst and one or two support people who will create a customized software system for your business from scratch. While this option might look interestingly cost conscious, it is often the starting point of a never ending and finally costly IT-odyssey bearing all kinds of risks. First of all you already need to know in what computer language your software should be written in order to hire the right people. Then, if for any reason the programmer resigns from your company, the project’s continuity gets disrupted until you can find somebody else to pick up the task. Given the limited number of people working on the project, the process will move on slowly and take a tremendous amount of time until it will cover and include the entire organization while you are waiting years for the expected benefits to materialize. Depending on your company’s internal culture, the IT people in charge of the project might become disengaged, slow, or caught in company internal political issues when the implementation of such a project needs thrive and drive. Here is a real example from a manufacturing company with 3 main production sections that has chosen this second approach. The company has started the project eight (8!) years ago. As of today (December 2011), they consider 50%, just half of the entire project to be completed and it has cost them 1.5 million Thai Baht which is indeed very little.

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As a matter of fact, it is usually not necessary to re-invent the wheel. There is plenty of reliable and tested software available on the market and most can be one way or another adapted to specific needs. Therefore you might want to consider the third approach described here after - outsourcing.

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Before you even think about new IT systems, let your company be screened for unnecessary and inefficient processes. These processes should be eliminated or straightened out before having a new IT system trying to support them. Be aware that your own people might not be able to fully identify those processes because they are too used to them in their daily work or maybe have not had enough opportunities to see how other companies do the same or similar things. Outsource the task of finding out what system is the best fit to replace or upgrade your current IT structure to what is needed to support your business now and in future, and also outsource the entire implementation of the change. Consolidating or transforming a company’s Island-IT structure into a fully integrated IT solution is not a small task. By outsourcing the project to an experienced software or consulting company, you will benefit from various advantages such as expertise in software selection, professional project management and implementation, availability and procurement of the necessary human resources which can be temporarily of considerable size, continuity regardless of personnel changes, clear cut schedule for implementation, auditable list of deliverables and a transparent cost structure.

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For sure, all this won’t be free of charge, but remember that having accurate figures available at any time allowing people in charge to give the right answers, to make the right decisions on the spot is the ultimate goal and an unavoidable necessity to survive in a business world where the lead lays in the speed. The earlier your company reaches this stage, the better. Whether you can afford to spend 16 years to implement a company-wide IT system integrating the whole of your business for as little as 3 million Baht, or whether you prefer to spend about 30 million Baht and have it done and ready in only 1.6 years will be yours to decide.

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How to choose your temporary partner (Software/Consulting Company)? 

• Formulate your targets and expectations clearly

• Invite different Software/Consulting companies to present an initial proposal so you can compare. You will see, their approach may vary greatly and give you an idea on reliability and potential success.

• Allow yourself to be skeptical when somebody can immediately tell you what IT solution is right for you just by knowing in which industry your business is. They later might have to “squeeze” your very specific business operation into their IT solution.

• Ask for customer references with names of persons you can contact for feedback and information.

• Remember that quality has its price and at the end you get what you pay for. But make sure it is clear what you will get before you pay.

• Don’t ignore your gut feeling. Depending on a company’s size, IT projects and their implementation can take a year or more in time. You and the partner you chose will have to closely work together during the entire project.

 

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Bangkok, January 2012
Published: The Nation, 3rd February 2012

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