Businesses cornered by magpie syndrome

Businesses cornered by magpie syndrome

Designertech’s FRANK services will tackle IT’s strain of magpie syndrome

The complex and disruptive nature of the modern information technology (IT) environment is leaving many New Zealand business managers and directors bewildered by an overwhelming array of solutions.

The risk of too many choices is that technology is becoming an end rather than a means.

Local organisations, such as the West Auckland community owned The Trusts, have found that among the new IT challenges facing them was a sense of missing out on the effectiveness of the systems that were already in place, and a lack of certainty around whether those systems were being properly utilised.

The Trusts CEO Simon Wickham advises businesses to avoid the magpie syndrome.

“Some vendors will try to sell you every shiny new technology solution because of all the cools things that they can do, and what you might be able to do with them, rather than measuring it against whether it is fit for the purposes that you need it for.

“Recognising this and getting to grips with it has helped our organisation develop and implement the right IT tools for the right purposes,” he said.

To help companies – such as The Trusts – identify the best strategic solutions for their business, Auckland based IT support, consulting and software development company Designertech recently launched their unique ‘information management consulting division called Frank.

Created to offer independent strategic advice to the management teams and boards of mid-market companies, Frank is focussed on helping those organisations identify the best technologies and applications they need to advance their core business functions.

Ray Delany, CEO of Designertech – which is also the company that developed New Zealand’s runaway technology success story, the MailMarshal spam filter product – said many organisations soldier on with whatever IT infrastructure they have because they simply do not know enough about the alternatives.

“Acting as an independent chief information officer for organisations that do not have their own, Frank’s planIT service builds a pathway to achieve its business outcomes. The guideIT service offers the CIO capability on a part-time basis to oversee execution of the programme.

“Technology has become a noisy marketplace with vendors promoting their IT products and applications on every corner. The rate of development also means that quality is an issue with many solutions, let alone whether they can do the job the organisation needs from them.

“New Zealand companies are encouraged to be wary of being seduced by all that glitters, and instead focus on what their priorities are, and an information strategy that will help them achieve the most practical business outcomes possible.

“Technology should never be an end in itself. By operating as a client’s de facto chief information officer, we are in a position to manage a client’s vendors and make recommendations on the best way forward for a company, from a practical business outcomes perspective,” Mr Delany said.

In particular, Frank consulting will focus on helping companies to:

· Conduct a strategic evaluation and develop a pathway – where is the business now, and where does it want to go? Service name: planIT.

· Provide chief-information-officer services to consult, advise and guide the decision making process. Service name: guideIT.

· Augment resource capacity or capability when needed. Service name: doIT.

“By developing a comprehensive capital and operational expenditure budget with the client, Frank helps companies spend more wisely, rather than spend up – it’s about bringing a large enterprise capability at an affordable price,” Mr Delany said.

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