IT Strategy & Planning

I am often disappointed with customers’ low expectations of IT consulting firms. Personally, I like to frequent businesses that care about their customers, care to do it right, and offer something that memorably improves my life, one experience at a time. If IT consulting firms were evaluated by the same …

You invest in ITSM solutions to achieve business outcomes – perhaps it’s to lower operational costs, improve customer experience, or reduce compliance risk. After successfully implementing these solutions, many customers find that they often fail to achieve their intended business outcomes over time, often resulting in a chronic tool-replacement cycle.  …

Organizations traditionally pay for outsourced IT work in one of two ways, by the hour for time and materials, or by way of a fixed price for the entire project. There are assumed advantages in each of these scenarios – paying hourly allows you to control costs by managing project …

Organizations purchase software not to implement new software, but to achieve business outcomes, such as improving customer experience, increasing operational efficiency, remediating risk, and reducing operational costs. As project design begins, however, these business outcomes become buried beneath lengthy lists of technical requirements and project deliverables, and become increasingly distant. …

The science behind choice reveals that although people are drawn to having choice, having too much of it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction, and inaction. Approaching IT project design without considering this paradox will yield underwhelming and ineffective results, and as this process is the bedrock of any IT initiative and …

Back in 2017, I spoke at the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (now Micro Focus) Government Summit in Washington, DC. I was on a panel discussing IT Transformation. The moderator asked me to share my experiences and perspective as the former Director of IT Operations at IRS, as well as my new focus …

If you’ve ever bought anything requiring a significant investment, then you’ve likely experienced the pre-sale courtship followed by the post-sale cold shoulder. During the sales process, the sales team is responsive, helpful, and solicitous. You get the impression that you’re beginning a relationship, not just buying a product. Then the …

Traditional IT services offerings and categories are becoming less relevant.  Models that help customers implement and simply manage the software are no longer enough. They do not produce long term sustainable outcomes and customers are justifiably dissatisfied. Right now customers need service providers designed to help them reduce operational complexity, …

Leading a successful IT transformation at a large institution like the Internal Revenue Service, the focus of the final five years of my government career, is a complex, difficult task, but not impossible. It’s a rewarding journey full of ups and downs that requires patience, persistence, resilience, coalition building, and …

How far would you go for something you don’t believe will succeed? As an IT leader, how much can you push your organization to embrace your project if you, the person who started it, doubt it will achieve its intended purpose? Would you really give your best to something you …