Procurement

Conclusion: If you know your organisation’s records and document management processes are out of control and do not propose a viable solution, you are putting your job, and the CEO’s, at risk.

Why Records and Document Management?

One of the hidden and unavoidable costs of running an organisation is that of manually filing, retrieving and disposing of records and documents. This cost often runs concurrent with the hidden risk from not being able to find key documents when required for evidentiary purposes or completing an asset sale. How can the costs be avoided and the business risks minimised?

To answer the question, let’s look at what has been happening in many firms of all sizes in the last couple of years.

 Conclusion: While certain types of IT sourcing deals (such as large “mega deals”) have been criticised by commentators, it may not be beneficial for all organisations to alter their current IT sourcing strategy. All potential cost and management problems must be carefully considered prior to altering any sourcing strategy.

Conclusion: Server consolidation has become widespread as budget pressure is maintained and corporate mergers and reorganisations continue. Although the overwhelming majority of consolidation projects are viewed as successful (at least in terms of the reduction in number of servers) when failures occur it is usually because of poor planning. Vendor endorsed programs often appear very attractive, but unless the full implications of your particular environment are taken into account the only goal that will be met is the vendor’s revenue target.

Conclusion: In today’s business climate in which discretionary capital is scarce, CIOs, or equivalent, need to be confident and able to convince the Executive they can deliver the benefits expected in proposals to invest in IT Infrastructure¹. To meet the needs of stakeholders when real time services are at stake, the arguments must be compelling and presented in a way that leaves the Executive no alternative but to approve the proposal.

Conclusion

Traditionally, vendor lock-in was associated with deliberate vendor-driven outcomes, where software and hardware forced the client to align their business processes to those offered by a specific software or ICT platform. Vendor lock-in often limited the flexibility of organisations to meet business needs as well as increasing costs. As a result, information and communication technology (ICT) was often seen as a limiting factor for business success when agility was needed. Historically, vendor lock-in was therefore seen as a negative. Poor timing, bad decisions and clumsy procurement practices may still see organisations fall into unwanted vendor lock-in situations. But is vendor lock-in always a negative?

Conclusion: Making a business case for human capital management (HCM) solutions can be undervalued by senior leadership who do not share the same perspective as the teams involved in the proposal. Securing their commitment through highlighting pain points and respective solutions can build momentum for digital transformation.