Upgrading your IT Systems?

Ten Top Tips For Avoiding Computer Meltdown

In the months leading up to the turn of the 21st century, businesses spent a fortune on new IT systems in an effort to beat the Millennium Bug. Now, five years on, those shiny new Millennium systems are starting to look tired and IT replacement is looming on the horizon.

For those tasked with implementing an IT system within a business this can be a stressful time. High profile IT failures, sometimes leading to business collapse, hit the headlines all too often and even a successful implementation can be an expensive, and protracted process.

The following tips, if adhered to, should help you and your organisation avoid computer meltdown.

1. Do not use a new IT system as a band-aid solution to a range of deeper business ills. Ask “What is this IT system supposed to achieve?” at an early stage in the project, set clear business goals, and, if relevant in-house expertise is not available, engage independent consultants to advise on how best to achieve them.

2. Consult the users. User buy-in is crucial to the success of any project. Make sure user requirements are fully reflected in the brief to potential suppliers.

3.’Cutting edge’ equals ‘bleeding edge’. Unless there’s a specific and unavoidable business case for being the early adopter of a particular new technology, go for a tried and tested solution. Consult existing users and visit reference sites as part of the pre-contract due diligence. Don’t be the mistake from which the rest of your business sector learns.

4. Specify, specify, specify. If it isn’t in the contract, then the supplier isn’t contractually committed to deliver it. Incorporate a detailed functional specification and use it as the benchmark against which performance milestones are measured.

5. Don’t start work without a signed contract in place. Make sure your contract negotiating team produces an integrated document in which the technical schedules fully support the legal terms and conditions and vice versa.

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