The question often leaves the manager, c-suite suit, or mannequined automaton that I am talking to with mouth agape and a disclaimer forming on their lips before I have even finished.
Yet, the sad truth to this pointed question is that, for most small business owners, the answer is a resounding *yes*.
I am frequently contacted by business owners or office managers in small firms, often in the 25 to 50 seat size, to ask how to improve their IT, cut their costs, or explore moving to an outsourced (or, sometimes, in-house) IT support model.
These discussions usually involve the people who are intimately connected with the IT decision making process - generally the CFO, office manager, and, if the firm employs an in-house tech and their job isn't on the line, the network admin.
The conversations all start with a brief overview of their current support model, their budget (or lack thereof), their 'pain', and their exposure.
I try to give more value to these discussions by focusing not just on what they are doing, but what other firms in their industry are doing, what other firm's are spending, and how other firms are using technology to 'improve' their productivity.
We talk about per-seat costs, fixed price consulting models versus hourly programs, when to outsource and when to hire internally, and a host of other pertinent IT issues that can have a real, bottom-line effect on a businesses well-being.
At this point, whoever is responsible for the IT policies at the company will sometimes (actually, more than sometimes, but I am being kind) begin what I call the 'hem haw' - a collection of trite phrases and half-hearted justifications about why their IT 'state of the state' is the way it is.
Some of these verbal parries are semi-believable - but they usually come down to two or three all-too common traits - inertia, bad judgment, or 'playing it on the cheap.
' If I hear one of these, and it's clear that it's patently bogus and against what I would consider 'marginal practice' (forget best practices here) - then it's generally at this point, that I come out with my question - "Does your IT suck?" "Excuse me?" is probably the most frequent rejoinder to this question, but I've had responses run the gamut from red-faced embarrassment and a quickly ending interview, to CFO's who burst out laughing at the discomfiture of their office manager, to a roomful of c-level folks whose heads bob up and down in unison, nodding a definitive YES.
But the value of the question is not to shock my audience into submission - but rather to indicate to them - quickly, clearly, and concisely - what I think of their approach to technology and its application to their business.
To many small business owners, technology is not a tool to improve productivity - but rather, a 'necessary evil' that they have to deal with in order to create spreadsheets or read those long documents and statements they get in their inboxes.
These firms usually have a 'bare minimum' approach to technology, and have never had anyone come to them and actually discuss the options and possibilities that technology can offer.
Case in point - a small firm with remote operations in China brought my firm in to consult with them on general support and service options.
Yet within fifteen minutes of hearing their story, the question about their general IT suckage was out in the open.
Why? This firm was spending literally hundreds of man-hours per year consolidating their orders via a manual process that involved emailing spreadsheets back and forth to their offices in China.
Never mind that their network was old and needed service - that was an easy fix.
But when I discussed with them how easily - and cheaply - technology could actually reshape the way they did business, they finally got the message that they had been doing it wrong for a long, long time - simply because that is how they always did it.
Less than ten thousand dollars and a few months later (a fraction of the cost in lost time that they had been enduring) their average order process time went from three days to *under fifteen minutes*.
Since we joined this firm as their IT solutions provider, and opened their eyes to the possibilities of technology, they have grown from twenty two people to over forty - in eighteen months.
So, next time you get a huge bill from your IT consulting company, or have a network problem, or are fighting your computer instead of profiting from it, or find yourself doing things the same old way simply because no one has shown you a better way - ask yourself the simple question - does your IT suck?
Yet, the sad truth to this pointed question is that, for most small business owners, the answer is a resounding *yes*.
I am frequently contacted by business owners or office managers in small firms, often in the 25 to 50 seat size, to ask how to improve their IT, cut their costs, or explore moving to an outsourced (or, sometimes, in-house) IT support model.
These discussions usually involve the people who are intimately connected with the IT decision making process - generally the CFO, office manager, and, if the firm employs an in-house tech and their job isn't on the line, the network admin.
The conversations all start with a brief overview of their current support model, their budget (or lack thereof), their 'pain', and their exposure.
I try to give more value to these discussions by focusing not just on what they are doing, but what other firms in their industry are doing, what other firm's are spending, and how other firms are using technology to 'improve' their productivity.
We talk about per-seat costs, fixed price consulting models versus hourly programs, when to outsource and when to hire internally, and a host of other pertinent IT issues that can have a real, bottom-line effect on a businesses well-being.
At this point, whoever is responsible for the IT policies at the company will sometimes (actually, more than sometimes, but I am being kind) begin what I call the 'hem haw' - a collection of trite phrases and half-hearted justifications about why their IT 'state of the state' is the way it is.
Some of these verbal parries are semi-believable - but they usually come down to two or three all-too common traits - inertia, bad judgment, or 'playing it on the cheap.
' If I hear one of these, and it's clear that it's patently bogus and against what I would consider 'marginal practice' (forget best practices here) - then it's generally at this point, that I come out with my question - "Does your IT suck?" "Excuse me?" is probably the most frequent rejoinder to this question, but I've had responses run the gamut from red-faced embarrassment and a quickly ending interview, to CFO's who burst out laughing at the discomfiture of their office manager, to a roomful of c-level folks whose heads bob up and down in unison, nodding a definitive YES.
But the value of the question is not to shock my audience into submission - but rather to indicate to them - quickly, clearly, and concisely - what I think of their approach to technology and its application to their business.
To many small business owners, technology is not a tool to improve productivity - but rather, a 'necessary evil' that they have to deal with in order to create spreadsheets or read those long documents and statements they get in their inboxes.
These firms usually have a 'bare minimum' approach to technology, and have never had anyone come to them and actually discuss the options and possibilities that technology can offer.
Case in point - a small firm with remote operations in China brought my firm in to consult with them on general support and service options.
Yet within fifteen minutes of hearing their story, the question about their general IT suckage was out in the open.
Why? This firm was spending literally hundreds of man-hours per year consolidating their orders via a manual process that involved emailing spreadsheets back and forth to their offices in China.
Never mind that their network was old and needed service - that was an easy fix.
But when I discussed with them how easily - and cheaply - technology could actually reshape the way they did business, they finally got the message that they had been doing it wrong for a long, long time - simply because that is how they always did it.
Less than ten thousand dollars and a few months later (a fraction of the cost in lost time that they had been enduring) their average order process time went from three days to *under fifteen minutes*.
Since we joined this firm as their IT solutions provider, and opened their eyes to the possibilities of technology, they have grown from twenty two people to over forty - in eighteen months.
So, next time you get a huge bill from your IT consulting company, or have a network problem, or are fighting your computer instead of profiting from it, or find yourself doing things the same old way simply because no one has shown you a better way - ask yourself the simple question - does your IT suck?
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