Standardization, Are You There Yet?
Recently, as part of a separate project I have been learning more and more about Microsoft Operations Framework, Microsoft Solutions Framework, and Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization Initiative. A lot of big words in there, and you can go learn more and get up to speed on those 'thinks' as time permits. Basically they are a methodology for IT consulting and management that is focused on identifying a company's current IT landscape and mapping that to business needs, IT standards and opportunities for further Microsoft Product penetration. Let's not beat around the bush, it is about Microsoft, they developed it and spend a great deal of time evangelizing it and even more money implementing it. Here's the thing, even when you eliminate the Microsoft Software the concepts ring true. Further, why eliminate the Microsoft Software from the consultative system. The fact is that they are spending vast resources to make software that is People-Ready for the enterprise as well as the SMB market. It works and is becoming the standard against which all others will be judged. Like it or not, Office is not going to be replaced by 'Google Apps.' Like it or not WordPerfect has not been for several years and will not be as heavily adopted as Word. Linux desktops and Mac desktops, no matter how trendy the advertising, will not be the mainstream system in the information world. They do well when given a chance, but I like what Microsoft is doing. By unlocking features in applications that can only be used under the 'right' scenario, Vista and Office 07, better together, they are not stifling completion but eliminating it. But I digress, which I am apt to do…
Standardization is the foundation for any Small Business that is looking to take that 'next step.' Often Small businesses are born and grow technologically one PC at a time, very organically, with no plan and no real foundation. This describes your average SOHO. Single PC or sneaker net or peer2peer. This can server a small business well for a period of time, some last this way years and years. The problem is that it has a logical cap of effectiveness. That could be in how people work together, Collaboration. That could be in how they process information linearly, Infrastructure, or how they consume information, Business Intelligence. The fact is that all small businesses will come to a point that they cannot grow beyond without a shift in how they operate. It's fundamental and demands an expert to overcome. Just like pests, for some an ant or two crawling around is ok and perfectly acceptable, but when it's all over the trash can they can't do it themselves and so they enlist an expert. Likewise a business will not grow, without an expert who can help them navigate that growth. Interestingly, it is the same all the way up the business world, whether it is Joe's Fish and Salad emporium or a Fortune 100 company, there will be times that they cannot do it technologically without some help. So the frameworks and initiatives I spoke about above apply here. And the interesting thing is that they apply throughout the business world, again whether it's a small business or a huge multi-national corporation, the frameworks and initiatives apply.
So it basically breaks down like this…a business maps into one of 4 quadrants on a circular graph, in terms of 'standardization' of technology and processes. That in turn maps them to a set of 'lifestyles' of the business, which then prescribes how to approach next steps, etc… As an example, let's say your company does not do change management well. Then you may fall into say section (b) and in there we describe your change management processes if they exist, your successes and failures, and mostly your hurdles to success in change management. By doing htat we can map you to say a basic level or reactive level of IT standardization. Meaning that when change is required you react to it to make it happen. Pretty simple, right, but here's the thing, your spending ALL your time and resources chasing change, so you cannot grow your company. The frameworks and initiatives prescribe steps to transition to a more rationalized state whereby you control change, not react to it. Taking it a step further, it prescribes steps to take to become dynamic and affect change before required or even requested. Making you a more agile company and able to deal with change more effectively. So that was a rather simple look at it, but it kinda drives the point home. Think about this little piece of change management and how you deal with it…a spambot attacks your domain name. How do you deal with that? It starts spamming your mailboxes to the tune of 1000 messages per day per address. What's that going to do to your users? What's that going to do to your servers? What's that going to do to your network/internet? You have to close a deal, but that is dependant on an email from your vendor, but it gets stuck in Spam Hell… Or how about this, a disgruntled employee, before walking out walks back to a server with all of your critical data on it, opens a command prompt and types FDisk and reformats the C partition wiping everything off the company's Server. Are you prepared for that? Do you have ways to protect against it ever happening? Or even knowing before/as it happens?
Those are some drastic 'change management' scenerios, but it could be as little as you hire a new sales rep out of (fill in remote location here) to sell your wares and services. How do you get them up to speed and integrated quickly into your world? So I am working with a group of like minded partners and we are learning more about these initiatives and frameworks, and are starting an evangelical campaign for it. Honestly, not many SMB's have the tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars to move from a basic state to a dynamic state over night. What we are doing is helping customers map the growth of their company and using the framework to migrate them from basic to dynamic within their growth projections….
Call Abbie or Me anytime to discuss this, it's a great time to be working with small businesses, there is SOOOOOO much growth opportunity for those that take the leap. Look for some successes and honest failures along the way with some of our client stories.
-bill