Plan, then Purchase
March 2, 2009 9:00 amContinuing our series of how to save money on IT in (any) economy is Part 2: Plan, then purchase.
It’s cheaper to purchase things only once. That’s a pretty self-evident statement if I’ve ever written one. However, you’d be surprised the amount of waste that clogs up an IT budget in the form of unplanned or unneeded purchases. I like to refer to this as “buying” when you should be “investing”. I’ve view it from this paradigm: You buy costs; they are expenses like office supplies or postage. You invest in assets; they can be in many forms but they must either allow your business to earn more income or reduce costs. Technology in business must be viewed as an investment. The net effect of either making more or spending less will result is your company being more profitable.
They key to it all is with the plan. When financial planners meet with new clients they analyze their situation, develop a unique plan based upon their clients goals and then implements that plan over time. When you start with the end in mind you can build upon a solid foundation of right fitting technologies, ones that complement your business goals. The person behind this plan is your IT architect, like an Executive Consultant from DP. This is the person responsible for working in conjunction with your management team will develop a technology plan to accomplish your business objectives. Sure, it may “cost” more to hire an advisor to chart this out early on, but it’s far less costly than retooling during heavy growth or the missed opportunities of using a poorly selected system. Does your IT plan support your business plan?
I completely agree. I would add that organizations should attempt–to the extent possible–to “grow into” their systems. Of course, this is not always possible, as Twitter has seen. http://philsimonblog.com/2009/04/11/twitter/