[TriLUG] [OT] What's the value of IT?

Thu May 14 14:04:54 EDT 2009

Maybe, maybe not.  One place I worked, the owner's husband did all the 
work because he couldn't/wouldn't delegate.  Another place, IT had to 
justify billing to overhead (government contract) because if you weren't 
billing to a government contract, you were considered an idler.  :-)

William Sutton

On Thu, 14 May 2009, Jon Carnes wrote:

> If you can do the business better, then have at it! That is how
> FeatureTel was born... but as we found out our business is actually
> quite different from the ones we critiqued. The old Telco providers are
> really specialty equipment vendors while we are more of a Service
> provider.
>
> It was our interpretation of their business model that was actually
> flawed... but fortunately not our vision.
>
> I'm a great believer of organic growth (evolution). If the company is
> growing - then the owners must be doing something right. Most likely a
> lot of things right.
>
> If you think what they are doing is flawed, then your vision of the
> companies niche is probably different from that of the owners. You may
> be eyeing a niche that that company is not equipped to pursue (and that
> is really how FeatureTel was born).
>
> Jon
>
> On Thu, 2009-05-14 at 11:58 -0400, William Sutton wrote:
>> While I appreciate your PoV as a small business owner, my perspective as
>> an employee of both small and large businesses is that very often the
>> owners don't actually understand what it takes to make their business
>> work.  To paraphrase a friend of mine, "It's amazing they got as far as
>> they did considering the amount of planning involved".  On the other hand,
>> telling them their business model is flawed doesn't go over well, either
>> as an employee, or as a potential support contractor.  It only seems to
>> work if they're willing to hire a consultant to come in and tell them they
>> have a problem.
>>
>> William Sutton
>>
>> On Thu, 14 May 2009, Jon Carnes wrote:
>>
>>> As a small business owner - and a former IT consultant - I would say
>>> that Justis' point of view is much closer to the mark.
>>>
>>> There are a lot of different ways to sell IT services to a company - but
>>> the key is to find someone internal who wants change. With a small
>>> company that is generally very easy. But large or small, the key is
>>> finding someone who wants you there. As we say around here: you can't
>>> push on a rope (and hope for anything good to come from it).
>>>
>>> Folks in small companies are not pinching pennies on everything they do.
>>> In fact if you find their pain point - the thing they are worried about
>>> the most - you'll find that their pocket books open up quite willingly.
>>>
>>> But they started the business to make money (and if possible have fun
>>> while doing it). And they have stayed in business by knowing their
>>> market and whatever niche they serve. If you want to change their
>>> business model because your way is better - the next thing you see will
>>> be the door closing on your opportunity. When you talk to a prospective
>>> client you need to acknowledge that they are the experts on how to run
>>> their business. Just as you are the expert on addressing their technical
>>> needs.
>>>
>>> The nice thing about IT consulting is that once you have uncovered the
>>> pain point for one business (and successfully addressed that businesses
>>> need) you'll find that same pain point in hundreds of similar
>>> businesses. Success breeds more success.
>>>
>>> Jon
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, 2009-05-13 at 18:04 -0400, Justis Peters wrote:
>>>> Jim,
>>>>
>>>> By saying that small business owners only care about saving money, I
>>>> think you're only articulating one side of the coin. The spirit of what
>>>> I think you're saying is that business owners only care about what
>>>> positively impacts the bottom line. This can be accomplished both
>>>> through saving money and through increasing revenues.
>>>>
>>>> One of the things I distinctly like about how Phillip is approaching
>>>> this question is that he is asking what value we can create through the
>>>> use of information technology. Value *can* be in terms of efficiency,
>>>> which can save money, but even the real value of efficiency can
>>>> sometimes be in faster response times, higher customer retention, and
>>>> higher quality deliverables within a given time frame.
>>>>
>>>> There are a few stereotypes one can make about small businesses vs.
>>>> large businesses. The hyper-focus on "saving money" is a common one and
>>>> is frequently what determines which businesses stay tiny and which
>>>> experience rapid growth. There's a slippery slope between "saving money"
>>>> and paralysis. After all, the easiest way to save money as a small
>>>> business is to fire everyone and close the doors.
>>>>
>>>> The businesses that grow rapidly are those who are able to nimbly
>>>> evaluate opportunity-cost as the opportunities stream past them. At some
>>>> point, they reach out and invest in an opportunity that has an outsized
>>>> ROI. In some cases, those opportunities can include information
>>>> technology as a core component of execution.
>>>>
>>>> An interesting flip-side stereotype is that large businesses only care
>>>> about the "obvious" bottom line and won't invest in things with
>>>> intangible ROI. While this isn't entirely true, and you can find
>>>> examples of companies investing in innovation programs, employee
>>>> satisfaction perks, and philanthropic pursuits, it's generally true that
>>>> somebody at least tries to spin these in terms of a "business case"
>>>> before signing a check. Small business owners tend to be similarly
>>>> hyper-focused on the bottom line, but you're more likely to find people
>>>> within the SMB market who will buy something just because it's shiny or
>>>> because it makes them feel like they quit their day job for the right
>>>> reasons. Even if they make up some napkin-sketch business case as to why
>>>> it makes sense for their bottom line, there's a lot more emotion and
>>>> personality that goes into the purchasing decisions in a small business.
>>>>
>>>> You can certainly make a good living by selling exclusively to people
>>>> who focus on "saving money", but you'll also find yourself eternally
>>>> justifying prices and speaking to customers who only care about that. I
>>>> encourage you to look at the positive, the "value creation", side of the
>>>> equation. I'm looking forward to seeing what Phillip comes up with.
>>>>
>>>> Kind regards,
>>>> Justis Peters
>>>>
>>>> Jim Ray wrote:
>>>>> Small business owners don't care about IT. Small business owners care
>>>>> about saving money. If we IT people don't save small business owners
>>>>> money, we are an expense that will go away. The small businesses that
>>>>> don't get it probably will not get it and must feel pain before they
>>>>> have a gain from what we IT people do.
>>>>>
>>>>> Correlating IT to saving money is the only avenue to reach small
>>>>> business owners.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On
>>>>> Behalf Of Phillip Rhodes
>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 4:40 PM
>>>>> To: Triangle Linux Users Group General Discussion
>>>>> Cc: Triangle Java User's Group
>>>>> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] [OT] What's the value of IT?
>>>>>
>>>>> Matt Frye wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> The question of the value of IT is really pretty elastic.  It's
>>>>>> connected, at the very least, to the mission of the parent
>>>>>> organization and how well (or badly) IT is integrated into that
>>>>>> mission, and more directly, to the way the IT organization is
>>>>>> "designed" around the needs of the organization (the focus of my
>>>>>> book).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So the core thing I'm trying to sort out - which I don't think I've
>>>>> articulated well so far - is this:
>>>>>
>>>>> How to explain to a small business owner, who isn't particularly tech
>>>>> savvy, and who's business isn't inherently technology oriented at all,
>>>>> how IT / high-tech can assist them in making their business more
>>>>> successful (eg, growth, productivity, profit, whatever metric you like).
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm thinking about things like a flower shop, construction company /
>>>>> general contractor, bakery, etc.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd like to think it would be possible to distil out a core set of basic
>>>>> principles regarding how IT is used to improve the performance of
>>>>> companies, and turn that into something understandable by anybody even
>>>>> if they don't have a lot of existing "tech savvy."
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> The tricky thing about value, especially in IT, is that it's relative.
>>>>>>  What the IT Director sees as a valuable pursuit may be seen as a
>>>>>> waste of time by a CEO.  Does the CEO know what he's talking about?
>>>>>> Maybe not.  Ok, probably not, but of course he's the boss, so no
>>>>>> matter how much of a wacko he is, his opinion matters.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Good point!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I look forward to seeing more discussion on these matters in a wiki,
>>>>>>
>>>>> etc.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The wiki I have setup is at http://itbook.wikidot.com/  feel free to
>>>>> check it out.  There's not much there yet, but I have high hopes...  :-)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>> --
>>> ---
>>> "Be yourself... unless you suck."
>>>                  Josh Whedon
>>>
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> ---
> "Be yourself... unless you suck."
>                  Josh Whedon
>
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