IT discussions in business media always seem to cover the same topics: mid-tier businesses and tech; IT investment (too much? too little?); data storage (and the environment); information security; and whether good tech people can be good managers. more...
Pete Jakob IBM Software Group Marketing Manager (UK, Ireland & South Africa)



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Bridging the gap

The step from thinking about making an investment in IT for your business to actually placing the order can be a big one.

If you need a car, it's simple enough. You do some research, find the best dealer and best deal you can, then put your money down. When it comes to business IT, it's a bit more complicated.

"Many businesses have a pain, which they're not sure how to articulate," says Adrian Lowther of Osmosis Integration (www.osmosisintegration.com), "and they think they may need some medicine, for want of a better analogy. They’re not really sure what medicine they need, they just know that there's this huge variety of pills and potions on the market that they don't understand."

Finding the right person to make the diagnosis and explain the particulars of the "illness" is vital – and this is where many businesses fall down.

"There's a big communications gap between business, IT vendors and suppliers," says Lowther. "Add in the enormous range of products and solutions on offer – just look at a portfolio like IBM's – and it means that all of our campaigns begin with a good dose of education."

Getting in the door, however, isn't straightforward. For example, in a survey of Real Business Insights readers conducted in 2006, just 38 per cent said they use external consultants to assist with the development of their future IT strategy and growth plans. This means that more than 50 per cent of respondents are handling their IT needs internally, in one way or another.

On their own, these statistics are not necessarily surprising – after all, many businesses look after their own IT needs. However, the responses to another question paint a very different picture. When asked "Who makes the final decision on IT expenditure in your company?", answers ranged from "All Directors" to "Company Secretary", "IT Director", "parent company" and a fair number of "not knowns".

So who is making the important IT decisions? Tech can be baffling for people building entrepreneurial businesses – and that's a problem, since they're usually the ones writing the cheques. Just defining the level of need is an issue. Is it a short-term fix or a long-term strategic buy? And once you figure that out, how do you do the research without running into the hard sell?

In fact, this is the next big bump in the road for most businesses considering an investment in IT: vendors with products to sell and very little understanding of what's best for a business.

"People are more cynical about the 'next IT trend' than ever. Many view IT vendors as snake oil salesmen. It doesn't help that the well's been polluted by so many people that now no-one wants to drink the water," says Lowther.
"We've tried to build relationships with businesses, to get across that gap, but it has to work both ways.

"There are a few components to a typical IT discussion with a business. The first question is: why am I here? And not just in terms of the hardware or software being considered, but in terms of what the business is trying to achieve – they're looking for a wide-reaching diagnosis. Then we look at the business case to discuss why they might want a particular medicine, and whether there might be any side effects.

"We start with the business case and steer clear of the features and functions, at least initially," Lowther concludes. "Business people want to know that the medicine is going to help cure their illness, they don't need to know what's in the medicine for the most part."

Ultimately, if you're thinking about IT, chances are it could do more for your business than you think. You just need to find the right person to ask.

"People always expect you're trying to sell them something – and to some extent we are – but fundamentally, we’re trying to understand the business well enough and get to know them well enough in order to become a trusted advisor," points out Dave Carroll of Open Logic (www.openlogic.co.uk). He explains that if a business isn’t sure about its IT requirements, it at least needs to be clear about its objectives and drivers, as well as the technology that’s already in house that could deliver those objectives immediately.

"For example, one of our clients had a contract management application through which all of its customer contract information was entered. It held everything apart from the financial information, such as whether or not the customer had paid or was in arrears, which was held in another part of the business, in another system," he says. "Customer service agents would have to log in to these two separate applications to get a full picture of any given customer.

"We put together a portal environment that would allow users to put in a single unique contract reference number and bring up all data on the customer, from both applications," he explains. "In effect, the business was able to use existing legacy systems and put them through a single interface.

"We can bring together two completely separate applications, representing two distinct business processes, and create a new business process using both of the technologies. This doesn't require any bespoke development on the part of the client and it means businesses do not have to revolutionise their tech. Sometimes, smaller solutions can make a big difference, but businesses may never know if they don't ask the right people."


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