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 …
IT Strategy & Planning
Consulting and Cuisine: If Choosing an IT Consulting Firm Was Like Choosing a Restaurant
Jesse White • April 13th, 2021Optimize Your Investment – Master the ITSM Approach Proven to Achieve Results
Jesse White • November 20th, 2020You 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. …
Should You Pay for IT Services by the Hour, Project, or Outcome?
Jesse White • May 14th, 2020Organizations 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 …
4 Ways You Can Actually Achieve Business Outcomes in Your Next Project
Jesse White • May 14th, 2020Organizations 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. …
What IT Leaders Can Learn from Trader Joe’s
Jesse White • May 14th, 2020The 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 …
3 Steps to Better Leverage Your IT Ops Budget
Rick Fratanduono • May 9th, 2017Back 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 …
How IT Leaders Can Hold Vendors Accountable For Outcomes
Peter Presland-Byrne • September 20th, 2016If 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 …
Outcome Service Provider – Traditional IT Service Models are No Longer Enough
Jesse White • September 13th, 2016Traditional 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, …
3 Keys to a Successful IT Transformation: What I Learned at the IRS
Rick Fratanduono • August 23rd, 2016Leading 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 IT Leaders Can Use Past Failure To Fuel Their Future Success
Ale Infante • August 16th, 2016How 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 …