Tag: consulting

  • Solving Business Problems, Not An Experiment With The Latest Tech

    Solving Business Problems, Not An Experiment With The Latest Tech

    The modern landscape makes solving business problems an exercise in finding the right provider most of the time. In my experience, software consultants and solutions providers come in three types. Some are heavily invested in existing technology and want to use that for every customer. Then, some want to jump on every new technology and use clients as guinea pigs. The third type focuses on the client and the best solution. Once that solution is defined, they decide how to implement it. These are the ones you want for your project. The challenge is figuring out how to weed through the options.

    Solving Business Problems Is The Focus

    I would say start with the website or proposal. However, you might come across a provider that does not have a website and has not sent you a meaningful proposal. Those are easy to ignore. It is hard to take a technology business seriously that either does not have a website or that has one that looks like it was built by a child a few decades ago. Here are some things a good provider will have on their website. The more of these, the better, and the more details, the better.

    • They talk about successful projects and solutions rather than technology stacks.
    • There are multiple clients represented, whether across projects or stories.
    • The focus is on problems they can solve as opposed to buzzwords.
    • Your non-technical friends, family, and coworkers can understand what they do without searching for the meaning of several terms.
    • There is a start and finish to the projects they highlight.

    While all of the above items are not required, a complete lack of this sort of content should raise warning flags. The alternatives you might see will list a bunch of technology they use (the stack) or provide links to cutting-edge vendors. They likely have the wrong focus when the site looks like an article from a tech news site or program.

    Finding That Perfect Match

    Once you have whittled down your list of prospective providers to those that actually solve problems, your next step is finding a match. The best providers will talk about solving problems you have faced or need to solve. For example, a vendor that spends a lot of time discussing how to market your business may not be the best if you need to track sales or integrate systems. On the other hand, a vendor that talks about bringing customers to your website may be the perfect fit.

    Be Prepared

    This may make you wonder how to match your problem to their skills. That is a good question and does require you to start by ensuring you have correctly understood and defined it. That is a mistake many companies make. They look for a provider and expect the provider to help define the problem and then provide a solution. While that is an acceptable approach, it will likely be more expensive. You will end up in a situation where you are in that old description of paying a consultant to use your watch to tell you what time it is. They are going to be an essential part of crafting a solution. However, you will want to invest the time in defining your problem to solve and related requirements as much as possible.

    A software project can be an expensive process. Think of it like a house or a mansion. You would not go into one of those projects blind or without firm ideas of what to expect. Do the same with your business. Take the time to examine your processes and the pain points you want to reduce or resolve.

    Next Steps

    We have an e-book that can help you explore all the steps in building software, including a few templates. However, we ask that you share an e-mail address so we can send you a copy. We will add you to our monthly newsletter, but you can unsubscribe anytime. Your data is not shared with anyone else. Learn more about our book here.

  • The Value Of A Technology Agnostic Provider

    The Value Of A Technology Agnostic Provider

    There is a concept among technology professionals known as being technology agnostic. This is a valuable trait of providers but is not commonly discussed. It is often avoided because not many providers have this trait. They do not want to highlight a weakness. That prompts a couple of questions right away.

    • What does technology agnostic mean?
    • Why is it a valuable trait?

    I am glad you asked. Let’s set the table with a definition and then look at its value.

    Technology Agnostic Is Broad Vs. Deep

    One of the significant differences between a provider (company or individual) that is technology-specific or agnostic is that the former focuses on one technology. At the same time, the latter has a broad-based approach. For example, a provider might be a Microsoft .NET shop (focused) or an agnostic solution provider. Before we focus on the broad approach, it is worth mentioning that specialists can also be valuable. These are people or teams that live and breathe a specific technology, platform, or application. Sometimes you know exactly what you want, and you want the best. It is not uncommon for a project to get to that point as it is refined and evolves.

    Why A Broad Approach?

    When you start on a project, there are very few constraints. You want to be able to leverage that and get a good understanding of your options. Think of building your dream house. You want to be the one that limits price, material, or location, not your real estate agent. That is the same when solving a problem. Thus, you want to be able to examine all the ways it can be solved without someone arbitrarily making that decision. It is not often highlighted. However, the various technology languages, platforms, and applications have strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, when your provider or consultant is narrowly focused, your options will also be limited. That may be a desire to avoid losing business, or it is often just ignorance. They don’t know what they don’t know.

    An Open Mind Brings Better Solutions

    We all have heard about thinking outside of the box. The best solutions often come when we get out of a box or set of constraints and look at the bigger picture. Technology can be powerful in providing solutions. On the other hand, it can handcuff us and constrain how we approach the problem. Rather than go deep into the weeds, let’s consider standard tools. I will even name names and refer to Microsoft Word and Excel. These are two world-class applications that are used every day. However, they have very different features, strengths, and weaknesses.

    It is entirely possible to write a research paper in Excel. Yet, that is not the best approach. Likewise, one can build a budget solution in Word, but Excel is better. These are almost extreme examples. However, I see such obvious forcing of a solution into a technology daily. It is valuable and possibly critical to start crafting a solution without first selecting a technology, whether an application or a stack.

    Finding The Right Provider

    You might now be asking how you would know what your provider fits into. Are they technology agnostic or a specialist? Fortunately, this is easily solved. You can ask them about their focus, background, and experience in previous projects. A provider constantly referring to one approach or technology will be a specialist. One that lists a large number of technologies is likely agnostic. You can then select them based on whether you know your solution needs their specific talents or you need someone that can guide you to the best technology fit.

  • What Is Your Budget? Setting Constraints For Your Solution

    What Is Your Budget? Setting Constraints For Your Solution

    This question is one of the primary ones to answer for any project or endeavor. Your budget is a crucial constraint and a guide to building the perfect solution for you. Of course, we all want a good deal and are happy to have our needs met for a lower cost than we expect. However, we also go into a project with an idea of what the solution is worth. That means we would be better off spending our budget on a complete solution than less money on a sub-par solution.

    Your Budget Provides a Target

    Think about any large project. For our purposes, we can use building a house. The budget is a critical part of the limitations to design. The architect cannot properly design your home without having the budget in mind. You might only be able to afford a small one-bedroom with one bath, or maybe, you want dozens of those and high-end interior design. Whether they undershoot or overshoot your budget by a lot, you are likely to be disappointed at the very least.

    Match Vision To Reality

    The challenge in matching your budget and vision is knowing what various features will cost. For example, you might want an extra bathroom for your house but need to know the cost of that over another closet. Software is the same in that fashion. Your project will be more likely to match your vision when you clearly understand the features available and their respective costs. That includes time as well as money. The maintenance costs may also be a factor in your decision, so a long-term budget is helpful.

    Factors To Consider

    Yes, we brought up the “M” word. There are costs for your solution that go beyond the initial costs. Those can include items we easily miss.

    • Recurring license fees
    • Hosting and Backups
    • Updates and Security
    • User Support and Administration
    • Data and Integration Updates
    • Bug Fixes Beyond the Initial Contract

    If any of these are confusing to you, make sure they are part of the discussions with your provider. You can also reach out to us for more details on what these recurring costs can look like. On the other hand, we have many similar areas where we need to be aware of options that can dramatically impact a solution. Those are a longer and more granular list.

    • Support for multiple users
    • Security considerations (external attacks)
    • Compliance requirements (HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley, GDPR, etc.)
    • Administration screens and tools
    • Training and Documentation
    • Online Help
    • Internal Security and Permissions
    • Data backups and Disaster Recovery
    • Platforms supported (web application, mobile support, desktop application, etc.)
    • Multi-lingual support
    • Remote Access
    • Functionality While Disconnected (i.e., no Internet)
    • The list goes on…

    Many factors can impact the cost and, thus, your budget. While you do not need to understand all of the above cost factors, you need to know how flexible your budget and vision are. There will be trade-offs. Thus, the more you have a general idea about the available features, the more you can adjust your vision. Of course, if you have an unlimited budget, it simplifies some of these questions.

    Making the Trade-Offs

    The other questions we have to answer for our project to be successful will help us adjust or conform to our budget. Decisions require us to eliminate paths or options. Therefore, we must be sure of our objectives to avoid choosing an approach that makes a goal impossible. There is also a cost associated with refactoring and change requests that we can avoid when we do a better job of scoping things out from the start. Finally, when our budget is tight, we need to aim for a more straightforward or less complete solution to avoid spending too much on one feature at the cost of another. The simple solution may be the only one we can afford. All of this again points to finding a partner who understands software development, your business, and your vision and can give you the details needed to make informed decisions.

    Signing Off On This Question

    You can think of this question as a box you are filling up. The objective is to decide on the size of the box. Then, you get to start filling it with features and determine if you want breathing space or are ok with a box about to burst. The important part about this is to realize that what you can fit in the box will vary, and you want to know the size and shape of the box when you start. When you decide to go with a different box somewhere down the road, you will need to unpack the one and then repack it to fit the new package. Do not be afraid to share your budget with your vendors or partners, as it gives them a lot of insight into what is possible for you.

    Improve Software Success

    We have an e-book that can help you explore all the steps in building software, including a few templates. All we ask is that you share an e-mail address so we can send you a copy. We add you to our monthly newsletter, but you can unsubscribe anytime. Your data is not shared with anyone else. Learn more about our book here.