Learn from Orbis
Why technology fails
The top mistakes that business managers and owners make, which cause technology projects to fail...
Everyone fears failure. Our human condition has planted the notion that failure means we have been
stupid, lazy, and - in the business place - failure often makes us fear losing
our paycheck or our business.
The greatest among us know that failure is the means to education: with each
"failure" we learn valuable information about the problem we are trying to solve.
Often, by learning what does not work, we can come closer to knowing
what does work.
Technology projects fail because business management and/or ownership is afraid
of making the wrong choice. The secret is simple: you will always be wrong with technology.
YOU WILL ALWAYS BE WRONG.
In technology, what is good practice today is nearly obsolete tomorrow. Resist the temptation
to try and "get it right" when it comes to technology. Forget the subjective notion of "right" -
and simply work on solving the problem. There are hundreds of ways to solve the same problem
with technology - there is no right answer and no wrong answer - only the answer that solves your
problem.
Realize that most technology projects "fail" because they don't actually solve the problem. Often, technology projects are designed to fix symptoms.
For example, you can have
the worlds most expensive system to scan and save documents. But what if the problem isn't saving the
documents - what if what you're trying to eliminate paper? Scanning solutions assume
paper - something to scan. The real problem is the fact that paper exists in the first place:
design paper forms out of your workflow and you don't need that expensive scanning system.
Think about the business problem or process you have: don't think about
technology. Ask questions such as, "Why do we do things this way?" "Is there a better way to do this process?" Once you ask
those questions, it is much easier to use technology to solve those problems.
Often, technology complicates our lives because we use technology to solve
symptoms - not problems.
Technology smarts
Learn why smart business owners and managemers never make decisions about technology...
Smart business owners and managers know their business well: they understand their industry, their product,
trends, customers, vendors, and their "trade." That's evidenced by the fact that they are in
business and successful - there would be no business nor success if they did not know their "stuff"
when it came to their business.
Savvy business people have to spend a lot of time learning their industry and practicing their
trade. This means that other tasks: accounting, legal, human resources, operations, etc. have to
be entrusted to other people or departments.
Smart managers don't know anything about computers. While industries -
manufacturing, logistics, production, advertising - are stable industries, computers and technology are
unstable. Technology
changes far too fast for the successful, smart business manager to stay on top of the trends.
To save time, money, and effort, information technology is outsourced by smart
owners and smart managers. Just like
legal, accounting, and HR, there are too many intricacies and too many changes in the technology
field to make technology an in-house affair.
The cost of bidding
The story of the purchasing department that wasted the technology budget...
Once, there was a company that needed to use technology to make more money, sell faster, deliver
product more timely, and close the billing cycle to generate more cash flow.
However, this company was adamant about "controlling" the technology purchasing process. The company
used the same methods to buy technology as they used to buy product, equipment, hire people, and ensure that they didn't spend too much money.
As such, quotes from various companies were obtained. Since the business owners
and managers really don't understand
technology, they don't really know what to ask for. Savvy sales people from technology companies
know when you don't understand, and they'll sell you lots of things to pad their commissions.
Our company thought they could control the process of purchasing technology like everything else,
and they
forgot one thing: they don't understand technology. It is easy to assume that every business process can be solved with
the same tools, but that's what leads to failure. Solving technology problems requires a technical
savvy that business owners, managers, and staff do not have.
So while that company went through the confusing and time-wasting process of filtering bids and having meetings,
they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars is lost people-time. Plus, they lost the benefit of that
new technology. By waiting to get the lowest price, they also failed to get any benefit, likely negating
any ROI that the project would provide.
The bottom line is that if you don't live and breath technology, don't make technology decisions.
Hiring a
consulting firm for their time will keep you from wasting your valuable time and money.