Last month we talked about best practices for crafting an IT roadmap in our blog post, Anatomy of a Business-Aligned IT Roadmap. If you haven’t had a chance to read that post, you should. The article looks at how many organizations are building IT roadmaps by focusing on the business strategy first and then layering technologies, people, processes, and metrics in on top of that.
Many of our clients understand the guiding principles behind the IT roadmap, but they hit a wall when it comes to developing one internally. This is typically attributed to any number of issues. Still, mainly it’s a lack of resources – not the lack of resources to execute a well-thought-out plan, but the inability to focus on creating that plan. That’s where CTG steps in.
Over the years, we’ve mastered the art of developing strategic IT transformation plans for our clients. In many cases, we have been able to uncover issues they didn’t know they had and help them plan for things they didn’t even see coming down the pike. How do we do this? Let’s take a look.
Discovery – Survey today’s IT ecosystem and challenges
Before we can attempt to make a plan for the future – we need to know what we are working with. During the discovery phase, we work to audit your existing technologies and services, specific business challenges or pain points, and identify your short- and long-term success criteria. An in-depth look at your current ecosystem gives us a good ‘temperature check’ when it comes to identifying outdated or near end-of-life equipment that will stifle future technology plans. We are also able to identify gaps in technology that are causing unnecessary challenges for your IT team and employees. All of the information gathered during this phase is vital to the next step.
Identification – Examine best-in-class services and solutions
We can now begin looking at the services and solutions needed to solve the challenges, address deficiencies, and achieve successes identified during discovery. This phase is where our clients tend to lean on us the most. Our extensive knowledge of best-of-breed technologies and vendors allows us to identify the right solution and the right vendor. A clear understanding of a vendor’s solution, interoperability, implementation process, and support options is mandatory for selecting services for our clients. The entire vendor experience plays a vital role in how effective the solution will be within the scope of the project and your business. Even the best technology can become problematic if it doesn’t work with existing equipment or the installation process becomes a nightmare for the customer.
Implementation – Deploy solutions according to your roadmap
You can’t do everything at once. When it comes to implementing new technologies, you may choose to deploy new technologies in phases to account for budget restrictions, organizational disruption, or internal resource constraints. In addition to accounting for the actual implementation time from the carrier, you also need to consider the additional time required to train IT employees on new services, applications, hardware, or software. Some services, like CRM integration, require extra time to train employees on how to use the new application integration tools. All of these factors play a significant role in the pace at which your roadmap will be executed. We often see IT transformations fail because organizations try to do too much, too fast – leading to a disastrous implementation and a frustrated team.
Ongoing Support – Lean on CTG to help enact your IT Transformation
Unlike large carriers, we don’t leave you high and dry after you install a new service. We take a customer-centric approach in which we always want to help you succeed with your IT ecosystem. We function as an extension of your team and aim to help you no matter where you are in your IT transformation.
On-site training – Personalized training for admins and end-users. Training can be anywhere from 1 to 3 days, depending on your installation. Our technical experts help users configure phone settings, set up voicemail, customize administration settings, and more.
First-day of service support – Both on-site and off-site, CTG’s team is ‘all in’ and available to ensure that installation goes smoothly. If an issue arises, we work to fix it on day one and will escalate to the carrier quickly if needed.
Not sure where to begin your journey? Have you tried to develop a roadmap but can’t seem to get things moving? We’d love to help. Just give CTG a call and let’s talk about how we can assist you in your IT transformation.