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Advanced
How To Guide
Formulating an IT/eBusiness strategy for SMEs
3.08 People Issues
Many companies have been unpleasantly surprised
by the demands placed on the time of non-IT staff during
the planning and implementation of IT projects. On a
related topic, some experienced major setbacks due to
the departure of key staff mid-project, or the loss
of key staff from their external eBusiness consultants
or providers. It is a fact of life that the experience
gained by staff on major IT projects makes them much
more attractive to other employers. Such indirect costs
and problems need to be considered as part of the overall
ICT strategy.
Significant IT projects can cause major changes inside
an organisation, and in the way the organisation interacts
with its trading partners. This can cause concern amongst
the people involved both inside and outside the organisation.
Occasionally, concern can lead to lack of co-operation
or even positive resistance. Proper consultation with
all those affected is a vital part of the planning process.
Technically sup-optimal solutions or a more gradual
approach than might be otherwise be desired, may be
necessary to secure co-operation Sound change management
techniques are essential during the planning and implementation
phases. One pitfall to avoid is allowing the human relations
aspects of change management to fall between two stools,
with the IT Department or IT consultants on the one
hand and the various functional line managers on the
other, each assuming that the other side is addressing
this critical issue.
The existing IT skills of the affected users need to
be assessed and taken into account in drawing up a training
plan.
The long term plans for staffing/managing the IT function
also have to be considered. When your system is fairly
basic, a rudimentary knowledge of computer systems possessed
by a non-specialist employee will suffice to handle
most problems. However, as the level of infrastructure
increases, it may be necessary to employ a dedicated
IT person to manage the database and/or the Internet and email connections.
In addressing the question of IT staffing you need to
consider two different levels of skill: on the one hand,
day to day trouble shooting, training and minor improvements
and on the other, long term strategic advice, selecting
vendors and managing the relationship with them etc.
A compelling case can be made for outsourcing some part
of your IT operation. Skills in the IT world are changing
rapidly. As new software and computer systems are developed,
IT personnel need to be trained on the new features
to obtain the maximum benefit. IT involves multiple
disciplines and an SME cannot generally afford to employ
several different specialists. It may be cheaper in
some cases to buy in the constantly updated skills of
a specialist IT company than to have your own employees
constantly retraining to keep up with the latest technology.
Even at the basic day-to-day level, there is a big focus
on the part of local IT companies to provide outsourced
managed services to small businesses. As the price of
hardware comes down to commodity levels, the local computer
dealers are turning to services as a means of generating
revenue.
Staff resistance and implementation workload, the cost
(cash and staff time) of the training, the lead-time
needed to get people up to speed and the level of disruption
in the interim, could be severe enough to merit a less
ambitious ICT strategy or a more gradually phased one,
than the company might otherwise have opted for.
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