City Intelligence

One of the most over looked needs in technology is assessing the organization. Too often we just rush forward in our efforts to implement the latest and greatest technology without taking the time for the introspection and self discipline imposed by an assessment. An assessment is more than just asking how to implement a new technology; in fact it should be done even when we are not considering new technology. An organizational assessment of a technology involves investigating the technologies, the people and the processes in relationship to the needs of the business in general, or in response to a specific business requirement.

Technologists are often rightly and appropriately excited by technology and want to be involved with the leading and bleeding edge, but too often this technology eagerness causes companies to begin to implement without regard for whether, when and how these technologies are appropriate for the business. Using an assessment allows the organization to consider the broader ramifications to the organization of a technology implementation. The assessment will look at the people in the organization, considering their skills, relationships, and temperaments. The assessment will look at the affects of the new technology on existing systems and data. The assessment will look at the ability of the greater organization to adapt to and adopt the technology. And, perhaps more importantly the assessment will look at whether the technology is a cost effective way of supporting the business. In the extreme, bringing on the wrong technology can kill the organization. A prime example is an Internet company which decided that they needed the latest and greatest ATM networks, and SUN servers in their datacenter. At the same time, they neglected to maintain sufficient band-width to the Internet core. As a result their customers experienced slow connections and tended to find other alternatives. Brought in too late, I wasn’t able to prevent the expense, but when the bank repossessed the expensive equipment, we re-implemented on Linux boxes with faster service.

Another key point when technology organizations need an assessment is prior to restructuring and reorganizations, or when they are preparing to change key leadership within the organization. Too often, organizations rush to make changes, or to put a leader in place without first understanding what the underlying issues in the organization are. The result is that the changes add to the chaos rather than resolving it, or that the organizations hire a leader for what the organization used to be, or for what they perceive the organization to be, rather than for what the organization really is. This can result in miscommunications and frustrations both for the new leader and for those who hired them. Too many organizations hire a CIO when what they need is an IT manager or perhaps a director. Too many organizations hire someone with specific skills in their current star technologies rather than those with skills that complement their problem areas.

Assessments are also critical when a company is considering a purchase or investment of another. Mergers and acquisitions are notorious for their failures resulting from integration failures, but when the companies are in the due diligence stage we find them spending millions or reviewing financials, looking at customer bases, and analyzing markets. The extreme was one company I was called in for an assessment, after the acquisition. While the company had been bought for its leading edge technology, no one had looked at the technology prior to the sale. After the sale, what I discovered was that all of the technology was either obsolete – some rather extremely – or engineering prototypes which were being sold to customers and generating support costs that far outweighed their revenue.

Periodic assessments are also important for technology organizations. The fact of the matter is that technology is not static. There are constant changes and improvements going on in virtually all aspects. At the same time, technology skills degrade. Not only does the technology knowledge base change, but technologists forget how those skills they don’t have the opportunity to make use of. This means that it is a constant battle of training, hiring and practicing to keep technologists up to date, and ensure that the technology in the organization meets its needs. This also means that it is extremely difficult for an organization to properly assess itself. Most often, no one in the organization will have the skills and perspectives required. We see this happen to whole industries as well, where the mantra becomes – “our industry has special needs and does things different.” Yes it’s true, your industry by remaining insular has fallen behind and has special needs, but the good news is that those needs have already been met in other industries and all it takes is cross pollination of experience.