Selecting And Deploying New Business Solutions

More often than not, I see organisations choosing speed over quality when it comes to selecting and deploying a new enterprise-wide business application.

Whilst fail fast is common in start-ups (where injected capital seems to be endless) and new speed to market consumer products (where competition is fierce and loss of consumers is fatal), this strategy often fails within internal organisations.

This is more likely to be driven by a burning platform, i.e., software/hardware has already reached the end of life and collapse is imminent (i.e. act fast now) or rising costs are deemed unacceptable by the CFO.

Considerations While Selecting Enterprise-Wide Business Application

End solutions should always be driven by end internal business user needs based on efficiency and business value. The business outcome should always be the focus.

You may say that this needs to be balanced, i.e., costs, quality and pace. Internal solutions cannot avoid a fail-fast strategy; internal users will not tolerate broken solutions that impede commercials, productivity and work-life balance.

The value of a CIO/CTO is to influence at the board level (do they have a seat at the table? that's a discussion for another time), ensuring the correct approach is undertaken.

Slow down!

Careful…