MGB & Associates consultants in Information Technology Outsourcing, CPA services, Project Management, Organization Effectiveness, Technology Maturity. Specializing in negotiations, contract reviews, contract and service remediation with major outsource vendors e.g. IBM, EDS, UNISYS, Computer Sciences

Memorable thoughts supplied by some of my friends and associates.  Each of these offers insight and thoughts that help us find our way through the speed bumps of business and life.

 

Kurt Vonnegut address at MIT supplied by Professor Enzo Valenzi, FIU (about to retire)

Daffodils supplied by Suanne Walters, IBM

 

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Executives receive multiple signals about their Information Technology investment.  Unfortunately, most of these signals do not address the effect on the business rather they deal with technical measures understood by the IT community and no other living entity.

MGB & Associates was founded to combat this communication gap.   We attack in several areas important in contemporary business:

Outsourcing:  How many organizations have questioned whether they should "stick to their core business" and jumped into the process of outsourcing information technology because it was hard to manage or, for executive management, hard to understand?  I have listed a few of the items that should be considered before ANY function is outsourced:

Before any outsource contacts are made with vendors you must know your functional unit.  This knowledge requires in depth understanding of staff skills, training levels, staff performance levels, individual's knowledge of the business and possible knowledge of trade secrets or other special one of a kind knowledge, equipment inventories (yes everyone has one it just isn't accurate), software and software licensing inventories, and facility locations (owned, leased, joint ventured).  The key piece of knowledge to be acquired is the effect of this functional unit on our business!   Then document, document, document to provide a clear blue print of interactions needed between the unit and other company units which would remain after the outsource was completed.  Then the most important step develop a list of measures stated in business (not technical jargon) measures which will define the success or failure of this functional unit.  Remember that once a decision is taken to seriously consider outsourcing there will be major communication issues within your organization.  One of the key communication stumbling blocks comes in geographically dispersed environments where a central group makes an outsource decision that becomes binding on autonomous or semiautonomous business units...frequently missed communications with these business units leads to buyer's remorse.

Vendor negotiations and selections:  The first point to consider is vendors like IBM Global Services, EDS, CSC, Perot Systems and Unisys approach an outsource prospect with a professional team which does negotiation of outsource agreements full time.  This means that many businesses are at a severe disadvantage in negotiations since outsourcing a function is a one time issue for the organization.  The point to start building a team for the customer side of the negotiation is before vendor contact is made.  If your business is in negotiation  already you may be at a severe disadvantage.  Remember that agreements struck often cover 10 years in duration and millions of dollars per year.

Buyer's remorse:  Outsourcing Agreements tend to have long durations.  This is reasonable  based upon the economics of the agreement but not reasonable from customer perspective when faced with a changing marketplace.  The other key factor leading to dissatisfaction with outsource agreements is the lack of clear business oriented performance objectives that are fully understood within all of your business units.  Internal client dissatisfaction drives beliefs of poor performance when, in fact, the vendor is meeting the Service Level Agreements established in the contract.  Remember SLAs are often viewed by a customer as the minimum which will be delivered while the vendor view may well be that the SLA is the maximum which must be delivered (the vendor will always give lip service to exceeding SLAs even after instructing their delivery management to prepare cost benefit reviews of the effect on the contract net profit if they intentionally staff in a way that they would miss SLAs...this really happens).

Strategic Planning:  Do you have a strategic plan for your business, or information technology?  Plans require effort and an attempt to understand your business, the competition, and outside market forces affecting your business.  Line managers often do not have the time to prepare an effective plan but go through the motions to produce a document that can be reviewed by internal and external auditors when that audit question comes up on the check list.  But what value is that plan?

Temporary CIO:  Searching for a new Chief Information Officer?   What are you doing in the interim until the selection is made and the new candidate arrives?  Hiring a temporary seasoned fill in allows your Information Technology unit to continue meeting your business needs rather than marking time.

Mentoring CIO:  You had a good internal candidate who just needs seasoning and new focus on the business instead of only a focus on technology.  Use a seasoned executive to coach and mentor your internal selection.

Organization and technology reviews:  Are your Information Technology organizations at a world class level?  What about the level and sophistication of your technology versus your business needs?  Is the competition using technology as a weapon to cut your market share?

Project Management:  Are you developing project plans that allow work to be completed on time and within budget?  Is the planning process documented and standardized within the organization?  Do your project managers need mentoring to achieve their full potential?  Are you using project management tools properly to help manage your projects?  Need project management training?  Is staff preparing for PMI certification tests?  Project Management consulting is an area where many offer consulting but few consultants have large projects that they have led to a successful conclusion.

Information Technology Consulting:  What is the state of your overall information technology environment?  Is the technology positioned to allow future innovation?  How strong is your staff?  Have you invested in training needed to be successful in the technologies currently used and in those coming on-line within the next 9 months?

A special note on remailing services:  This is a service established to make use of facilities already necessary for the business.  It offers confidential letter and postcard forwarding for special circumstances where showing your origin post mark would compromise the communication.
Why would I want to use a remailing service?:  There are many reasons to want to use a remailing service.  Generally there is a need to be able to mail a letter or post card from somewhere other than where you live.  Sometimes this is called postal remailing or letter forwarding.  MGB & Associates' service is unique in that you can monitor to be sure your items were mailed.  This may be a complaining letter, whistle blower alert to companies or regulators, or some other equally confidential communication.  Suffice to say you do not want the letter easily traced back to you.