When it comes to seeking successful management and delivery of technology within SMEs, Paul Krisman explains how smaller and younger businesses should learn from the experience of others.
A glance through a basically stocked larder would present a MasterChef with the chance to fashion a truly Cordon Bleu offering. The same selection and challenge presented to “the man on the street” is unlikely to merit a Michelin mention.
When small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) undertake the challenge of implementing business critical technology the difference between success and failure lies in their understanding of their capabilities. Many will be tempted to imagine that the necessary ingredients of success of their project are hardware, software and implementation services. They fail to recognise the necessary role that expertise, planning and management will play nad understand how they can use what they’ve got to their significant advantage. Paying insufficient attention to these items will almost result in a dog’s dinner.
There have been many catastrophic public failures of large-scale IT projects; when the London Stock Exchange abandoned Taurus, its paperless share settlement system at a cost of £800m it was 11 years late and 132 times(!) over budget; the computer-aided dispatch system developed over 6 years by the London Ambulance Service was permanently scrapped days after going live when it proved itself unusable.
An independent survey of project success and failure identified that only 16.2% of software projects were completed on-time and to-budget, research carried out at a similar time in the UK determined the major causes of IT project failure in the finance sector as follows:
Why Projects Fail
Source: PMI
In almost every instance the source of project failure is related to quality, planning and communications issues. Consider the earlier culinary example; assembling the ingredients is not enough to deliver the appropriate Cordon Bleu menu and recipes - you need imagination and knowledge so you know what may be achieved, experience to sequence and execute the tasks and the right environment and tools to guarantee success.
Organisations, large and small, fail to successfully implement projects by identifying and committing to the solution without clearly understanding the requirement.
Every business has a strategy, for some the strategy is focused at increased efficiency and stabilisation of core business, for many the strategy is a vision for the future. Whether the direction is growth, control or survival every business has a technical strategy. Not knowing what that strategy is does not mean it does not exist — it means that it is not under control.
The massive price of failure has caused large organisations to refocus on building the right foundations:
Strategy, planning, governance and management need to be clear before projects start;
Technology is an enabler but technical architectural, technology choice and vendor selection are the building blocks that make all the difference;
The path ahead is not quick nor cheap but requires joined-up and cross-organisational commitment. The cost of failure massively outweighs the benefits of success.
Technology within SMEs has evolved, by the end of the eighties the business would have implemented its first system (probably a standalone accounts system), in the nineties the technology has expanded to implement a network, office tools and towards the end of the decade had started to see SMEs engaging email and their first web sites. Today Cloud, mobile, integrated platforms, IoT and data analytics lead the way and to advantage from these, they need to be in the right hands.
Habitually, the responsibility for IT within SMEs resides with the first implementer (often the financial director who employed Sage or first used spreadsheets in the 80 or 90s) or with a technician who firefights effectively but does not have the vision, position nor respect within the business to develop or implement mission critical technology.
SMEs today are integrating enterprise-style business solutions to support the operations of and interfaces between sales, processing, distribution, customer service and the back office. They are well advised to take on board the earlier learnings from other organisations and recognise that planning, management and control are essential ingredients of success.
In implementing IT within an SME there is no fine line between success and failure, there is instead a deep and intimidating chasm. To navigate across requires unswerving commitment from the business and a guide with the skill, experience, vision and knowledge to make the journey safely.
Paul Krisman is the founder of Strategic IT, an advisory business focused at helping business leaders grow their business through effective technology and operations.