We had one client a few years ago that needed a different security scheme to support multiple physical locations. They wanted a location view, a division view and a rolled up HQ view that the application could not support natively. So they paid a firm several thousand dollars to build a custom security model for their financial system. Now, every time the company has to update the software to the new version, they have to pay this same firm to perform the upgrade and re-add all the custom code back into the system. This happens every year and as new technologies and integration methods come to market, the impact of this customization can end up costing the company tens of thousands of dollars more.

As it turns out, the last 3 versions of the software supported the security requirements of the company. It took a little more money to remove the customization initially, but the payback period was less than 2 years. Using automated update routines produces predictable results. Results that the software vendor is able to test vigorously before releasing the update to its customers. Additionally, the company can now adopt a more aggressive update/upgrade cycle to take advantage of new features as they are released.

Lessons about customization:
1. Make sure you really need the software to do something different than the way you do things.Validate against a “Nice To Have” vs. “Must Have” decision criteria.

2. It is not just the cost of the initial customization that you have to think about. Ongoing maintenance and testing with every software upgrade can cost as much, if not more than the original development of the customization… and it happens every time you upgrade!

3. The fewer the number and lesser the complexity of system customizations, the easier and less expensive (and less error-prone) updates and upgrades become.

Principium Technologies advises it’s clients to perform regular systems architecture reviews that take into account these customizations. As software matures, custom code can usually be removed and functionality returned to the native code of the application. This keeps updating and upgrading simple and much less expensive over the long term.

Focus on the Core:

For many companies, IT is a distraction. It takes away resources from the core business to work on things that should be used like a utility similar to the water company or the gas company. By outsourcing the tactical aspects of an IT department, the company will have the ability and resources to focus on what is important for growing the company.

Strategic CIO:

At a particular stage in a company’s growth, being able to fully leverage new technologies to streamline or grow the business becomes more important. Hiring a CIO is one of the first steps these companies take when they reach this stage of growth. However, this creates an inherent conflict in the IT organization. Larger companies can afford to staff project teams to implement new technologies. Smaller to mid-sized companies cannot. They leverage their internal IT staff supplemented with a smattering of consultants to launch new initiatives. The challenge is that whenever Sally in accounting has a problem with her PC, one or several of the resources working on a strategic project has to stop what they are doing to put out Sally’s fire. With 500+ employees, this can result in hundreds of similar fires every month. As resources start getting pulled from the projects, timelines and sometimes budgets for these projects that could have had real bottom-line impact start getting extended. So on top of valuable resources working on non-value adding work, the opportunity costs for not realizing the advantage of a strategic IT project needs to be figured into the equation.

One of the key initiatives for strategic CIO’s is to make sure that their employees are focused on adding value to an organization. Network maintenance, help desk support, PC management, printer management, smart phone management, systems administration and maintenance are all low to non-value added tasks. Managed Service Providers take over the tactical making sure that CIO’s have more of the most precious commodity they can have, time to focus on what is important.

Expertise:

Managed Service companies such as Principium Technologies in Louisville, KY, bring highly talented experts and mature IT processes to small and mid-sized companies. Smaller companies cannot typically afford high-priced experts, but Managed Service Providers can primarily because they are leveraged over many accounts. Experts are very important in the growth stages of smaller companies primarily because this is the stage of transition to larger and more complex systems.  Having them designed correctly is key to making sure that the systems work as expected.

Lower Costs:

Because of the expertise, training, economies of scale and IT process maturity, Managed Service Providers are affordable. Partner relationships and the ability to focus on the best technologies to manage and maintain infrastructure make sure that the most cost-effective and efficient tools and processes are leveraged to provide the best possible service to the customer and often assume the role of Trusted Adviser for things such as hardware purchases.

IT as a Service:

For smaller businesses where capital can be scarce, Managed Service Providers supply their services for a flat monthly fee. Even hardware, such as servers, PC’s and laptops can be provided as a service. All paid on a monthly basis and only on what you use.

The attention to detail is a necessary quality an IT department needs to have. With all of the various fires that need to be put out on a day in and day out basis, simple maintenance and documentation tasks fall to the wayside. Here is an actual example.

The IT department in a mid-sized company helped architect a new financial management IT system for their company.

PeopleSoft (now Oracle) was the chosen vendor. The IT department took the hardware requirements from PeopleSoft and implemented them to the letter. Everything functioned fine.  About 3 years later, however, the system had a major crash due to a power outage with lost data and the already resource-constrained IT department worked around the clock for weeks to recover from it. The root cause was not the design or the system itself. It was the lack of maintenance and attention to detail.

Post-Mortem:

There were several issues that arose from this lack of attention to detail and routine maintenance tasks.  A few of the key issues included an over-subscribed UPS and unsupported versions of software and hardware.

With the UPS, regular tests were not performed and checking the battery viability did not happen. Additionally, over time, other servers were plugged into the device that was designed to only support the financial system. This resulted in a 30-45 seconds of battery life and when that time was up, all the servers crashed hard.

After several of the other issues were addressed after the crash, the team needed to restore data from back-up tapes. Because the back-up process was not monitored well and restoration tests were never performed, the team didn’t discover that the version of back-up software was no longer supported by the manufacturer of the tape drive until they needed to restore critical data.

Mature IT processes and the discipline to make sure that the processes are followed is the key difference between what Principium Technologies offers and what IT departments can usually provide. It is not the IT departments’ fault either. Fires take precedence, followed by project work and when that takes up more than 50 hours a week for each IT employee, they opt to let this maintenance lapse. But just like the boiled frog, when the water slowly reaches that critical boiling point, an IT department ends up on the bad side of a crisis. Principium Technologies pays attention to the little things so that your IT department doesn’t have to.