Surviving the recession: a Quocirca series

It's been 12 weeks but we're nowhere near the other end of the downturn yet. In the final chapter Quocirca's guide analyst Clive Longbottom pulls together all the things you need to do to make IT work for your business - properly.

So, after 11 articles, do you feel lucky? Are you ready to take your proposal to the main board and lay your neck on the line with a statement of 'Here's what is needed to be done, here's how I aim to solve the issues - in this priority order - and this is what value it will add to the business'?

First, let's look at what has been wrong with UK Plc's approach to IT to date:

* IT is seen as a separate part of the organisation rather than a core facilitation tool

* IT is seen as a P&L centre with artificial internal rates of return and cost of ownership constraints

* Because IT has not been integrated into the business it doesn't understand the business

* The datacoms and telecoms teams don't talk much to each other - and when they do, use different jargon

* Silo approaches to issues have provided multiple databases of similar information - with no common ground between them

* 'Safe buying' of big-name applications has stultified differentiation capabilities and created massive lock-down issues

The list above (which is not exhaustive - I only have so many words to play with) provides you with extra ammunition when facing the purse string holders. Knowing and acknowledging the above can put you in a position of relative power - as long as you have the ammunition to face down any criticism and (particularly) wrong perceptions.

This series has tried to provide you with the ammunition - a different approach to the issue of IT funding based around the total value to a company combined with the costs of not doing things, competitive analysis and a good knowledge of the actual business issues being discussed.

Let's make sure we have all our ducks in a row first. From this series of articles, we have looked at how to create a Total Value Proposition based around the following areas:

* Using solutions to business issues rather than using technology

* Prioritising issues to ensure rapid value add and minimum cost

* Ensuring a knowledge of the customer chain and the supply chain can help to create seamless, straight through processing, and how changes in customer (and workforce) mobility will impact the company's needs

* Ensuring that the lines of business are involved and there is a level of bilateral understanding of needs and proposals

* Using Game Theory to ensure the various options are considered, and understanding what the competition may do

* Understanding there are costs (both hard and soft) to not doing something

* Making sure the business gets minimised 'time to' capability, enabling the business to optimise time to market

* How the management and control of windows of opportunity can be used to create market differentiation

* How outsourcing all or part of project can help the business concentrate on its core capabilities

* How flexibility of facilitation is more important than any one singular solution to any one singular issue

The project proposal will need to be written to adhere to your own internal standards - the problem here being that there will probably be sections for 'return on investment' calculations, details of proposed savings and so on.

You will have to decide whether you face these areas head on ("This section has not been completed as the base data is not available - the time required to gather this data would jeopardise the success of the project"); work around it ("Based on available figures, the cost for this project will be X, the direct savings are projected to be Y, soft savings should be in the region of Z. ROI is therefore X/(Y+Z)"); or fudge it ("The cost of not doing this project heavily outweighs the cost of doing it." - see section below headed 'Game Theory').

Presenting the case is best done via a short, hard-hitting presentation, rather than a discussion of the actual project proposal document itself. The presentation should start with a set of bullet points showing what business issues you are proposing to solve, how long you will take to do this and what you need in the form of resources (time, people and money).

Then launch into the reasons why these issues are of paramount importance to the business (don't even mention technology), and provide some of the Game Theory information you have - particularly anything about the competition.

Next show how your proposal maximises the use of existing IT assets (at a high level - 'We will continue to utilise the existing call centre functions, as we will with the ERP system implemented in 1998').

Provide some details on how your approach provides flexibility for the business going forward, based around the use of technology as a service and how this is a prerequisite for how the markets are changing.

Finish off with a set of conclusions which almost assume that you have the go-ahead for the work - keep it all positive!

The presentation should be no more than 20 minutes - any longer than this and you will either bore them to death or start repeating yourself.

If you get turned down - ask why. Many of the points may just be conservatism, and can therefore be dealt with there and then.

If there are valid points, get back to those who raised the issues afterwards with extra supporting information as required.

Finally - all the best and may the force be with you...

**Quocirca is a leading, user-facing analyst house known for its focus on the 'big picture'. For a full summary of its activities see www.quocirca.com, or reach the company's founding directors by emailing quocirca@silicon.com.

The other 11 Surviving the Recession columns:
Part 11. Managing for the future - the need for flexibility
http://www.silicon.com/a51473
Part 10. In-house or hosted: the outsourcing question
http://www.silicon.com/a51291
Part 9. Creating and using Windows of Opportunity
http://www.silicon.com/a51109
Part 8. Time to Capability
http://www.silicon.com/a50908
Part 7. The use of Game Theory
www.silicon.com/a50677
Part 6. Creating a basic Total Value Proposition
http://www.silicon.com/a50475
Part 5. Supply and demand - managing expectations
http://www.silicon.com/a50295
Part 4. The mobile factor - preparing for the deluge
http://www.silicon.com/a50159
Part 3. Knowing the customer
http://www.silicon.com/a50052
Part 2. Prioritising business needs
http://www.silicon.com/a49901
Part 1. It's a recession - save or spend?
http://www.silicon.com/a49733