Ten point plan for aligning IT with business goals
1. Commit money to unforeseen costs like necessary project management, business process review and training. Most projects fail or are less successful because of lack of ongoing investment in training and project management. Once the big bucks are spent many don’t want to spend more but it’s a mistake. Project management and training are not free and they represent the glue that holds your bricks together.
2. Have a clear, written business strategy for the firm.
3. Have a business plan that states the path “from now to then” within the business strategy
4. Share this fully with the head of IT and expect a matching strategy and phased implementation programme in return. Ensure you all understand it and have agreed ways to measure success or failure. For instance: lawyers spend less time phoning desktop support equals fee earning hours improve or: lawyers give better advice/win more clients because knowledge on offer is now real time and not out of date.
5. Benchmark /network with similar firms for ideas/knowledge/peace of mind/to ensure your budget is in line. Set aside budget for this to attend conferences or meet colleagues.
6. Do think about what business returns are expected for the IT investment proposed. Do you expect ten more clients if you install this software? Is this enough to cover costs first year? How will the software achieve this (automated processes, information portal to save lawyers being engaged with clients on menial tasks or information).
7. Ensure there is a communication methodology within the firm that makes this clear to all (intranet, regular meetings, monthly report).
8. Agree to measure IT performance with set criteria ie how effective IT desktop support is (ie number of complaints), delivering applications on time and within budget and look for a simple measurement for ROI (for instance year on year profits or incoming clients (where did they come from – website can be measured for instance and is an increasing source of new business).
9. Don’t be afraid to ask questions so that you build realistic expectations about what a proposed system can achieve. Ask: ‘will it do this?’ ‘Will I be able to do that?’
10. Focus on improving core applications that assist the business, don’t be distracted by fancy ‘bells and whistles’ that deliver no long term business benefit and eat up IT budgets.
Bill Kirby works at Professional Choice Consultancy
No comments:
Post a Comment