Computer master plan / Globes

While large organizations have already internalized - and are vigorously implementing - the insight that there is nothing like fresh digital fuel to soar to new heights. In the world of medium-sized businesses, they are still busy putting out fires, plugging loopholes and adding patches to corporate computer systems. "Instead of taking advantage of the flexibility and agility of a small business entity, which is able to respond quickly and efficiently to changes in environmental conditions and competition. In many cases we find fear of changes in the information infrastructure," says Guy Hochman, CEO of Genie Computer Services for Businesses. "An in-depth examination shows that the excessive conservatism stems from a lack of a well-planned road map, which will show the way from the current state to the desired state of the IT system in the medium-long term. When decisions are made ad hoc, based on an immediate need to solve a critical problem, the development of information systems is necessarily random, sometimes confused. And in any case ineffective in terms of strategic goals. No small or medium-sized business can hope for significant growth without outlining a forward-looking IT strategy."

What you see from here

We assume that quite a few small and even medium-sized business owners shake their heads at the reading of these words and think: "Well, he can think about a long-term strategy because, unlike me, he does not have to put out a new fire every morning, organize a budget for an unexpected upgrade, and think about the business consequences of each Decision. Contrary to the sophisticated panorama that the consultant sees, from the chair I'm sitting on, you can hardly see the road until the end of the quarter. And in general, who will prepare the road map for me when our company does not even have a qualified system manager? Bringing in a new secretary, or updating a version of the accounting software - but these are not the skills of an information systems strategist, and I can't get business advice from him either They are the playground of the great and the rich and the Harak fish have nothing but envy."

not like that. It is true that designing a plan to accelerate business growth through information systems requires the highest degree of expertise - both in the technical aspects and in business understanding - but no one said that you have to solve this puzzle on your own. It's also pretty sure that it's a shame to waste your modest development budget on expensive consultants and give the reins to a huge integration company, which is completely incapable of understanding the constraints and limitations of SMB companies. "It is a classic mistake to think that the level of professionalism of an IT service provider is directly proportional to the number of skulls it employs," says Guy Hochman. "In every integration company there are experts and interns, few with relevant experience and many rookies - and the client has very little control over the type of people who will do their project.

Large integration companies see Enterprise customers and large government projects as their natural habitat. There they compete with other large integration companies for fat and very profitable contracts. An SMB customer who joins their customer list will find himself at the bottom of the priority ladder and has no chance of getting the attention of the best "guns". By default they will send him rookies to learn how to shave his beard. It is better that he directs in advance to receive service from an integration company that is itself an SMB. Like Genie Computing Services. Then he can be sure that the most senior management will be involved in the project, starting with the CEO and ending with the implementers."

Business acumen and teamwork

The importance of senior management involvement is not only in the ability to concentrate effort and solve problems faster. "One of the problems of an SMB customer is the need to find many answers, for many different topics, in one place," says Guy Hochman. "The small and medium-sized business cannot look for a consultant for every topic, an expert for every application, and a project manager for every stage of the execution of the plan. This approach is simply too expensive, the coordination between the parties requires too many management resources and there is a danger that everyone will engage in mutual accusations in any case of entanglement. In the problematic aspect of business adequacy, that is, creating the right balance between business-economic considerations and technical-operational considerations. Here, the judgment of a CEO is needed, who by the nature of his role has acquired experience in establishing and maintaining business adequacy in his business. And again, we also see in this aspect the natural division between large and smaller companies. A CEO of a medium-sized integration company, who has personally experienced the dilemmas of rapid growth, will better understand the difficulties faced by customers from the SMB sector and will be able to give better direction to his colleague, who is interested in promoting growth through IT."

At Genie Information Systems, not only the CEO is involved in the design of the "master plan for computing" for clients who strive to increase and improve profitability. "It is a teamwork of experts in a number of tangential topics, project managers in a variety of verticals and of course the business management," Guy describes the preparation for accepting a client New to the service. "The starting point is, usually, that we have to get the client to where he wants to be within 24 months. Then the professional parties conduct an in-depth survey to map the gap between what is desired and what is found, a realistic assessment of costs and times according to the organization's ability to implement changes and a technological forecast of trends in the IT market in the foreseeable future.

All of these constitute basic data for a business analysis of cost-benefit, to which the administrative factors are entrusted - and of course I am also included in them. It is also important to mention that embarking on an outsourcing IT renewal project is not similar to the "Foreign Legion" attack. It is a close cooperation between the project managers on the client side with the management of Gini. The goals, means, schedules, control points and parameters for success are determined together, in a true partnership of two entities embarking on a common path, which will optimally form the basis of a business partnership for life. We are not looking for casual suckers, but loyal customers who know how to appreciate a loyal service provider."