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Are You Making Your Business Vulnerable to Project Failure?

Are You Making Your Business Vulnerable to Project Failure?
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When implementing a new project, expectations run high and deadlines must be met. The temptation is to feel so pressured to get the project finished that the planning phase is rushed. If even a small detail is overlooked and a shortcut is taken in this early stage, it can come back to bite you in a major way--perhaps even derailing the project altogether. This is especially the case for an IT project.


CIO.com provides a working ratio of why such oversight is important for IT projects of any size, especially during the more risk-prone discovery phase. “Discovery is the crux of project risk. Although the discovery and architecture phases of a project may represent only 15 percent of the overall effort, an error or omission early on can cause cost overruns of 150 percent or more.” Have you experienced an issue of this scope in any of your company’s previous projects?

In order to prevent your next IT project from facing a disastrous end like this, you're going to want to invest the time needed to perform the discovery and architecture phases correctly, the first time. But how can you make sure this happens?

For starters, working closely with your vendors and service provider is a must. If you detect that they’re not thoroughly answering your questions or that they’re trying to rush the project in any way, then you’ll need to speak up about it, before it’s too late. Instead, you need to make sure your vendors are guiding you through each step of the process, and that they’re assertive enough to present you with options and tough choices when it comes to unpleasant tradeoffs.

Secondly, you need to know what it looks like when a project is being rushed or shortchanged. This can be difficult to catch for a busy business owner with only a surface-level knowledge of IT. At Infradapt, we know what this looks like and we want to pass this information onto you. When in the discovery/architecture phases of your next (or current) IT project, look for a vendor taking these four shortcuts.

  1. The documents prepared for the project are based less on what your company’s specific needs are, and instead are overly influenced by industry jargon and sales propaganda. The idea here is to overwhelm a business owner with features and benefits that sound great, but may not be precisely what the project needs and what real users would actually use. Classic snake oil sales strategy.
  2. Project requirements aren’t prioritized adequately. This shortcut will provide poor guidance when it comes to the step-by-step implantation of the project, and the hard trade offs that are sure to pop up when dealing with a budget and a deadline will hit unexpectedly.
  3. The project requirements are lacking important steps, like transitions in the end-to-end business process. If these gaps are uncovered during the implantation phase instead of the discovery phase, then meeting these unplanned requirements will push back the schedule, and may even change the entire scope of work needing to be done.
  4. The needs of the business evolve dramatically enough over the course of the project that the project proves to be insufficient upon its completion. Keep in mind that technology itself is prone to becoming obsolete by newer solutions. Shortsightedness in both areas can make it frustrating to have to go back and redo the project much sooner than expected.

These four shortcuts can devastate an IT project, or any project for that matter. One way that you can safeguard your business from these risks is to hold consultation sessions all throughout the course of the project--as opposed to leaning heavily on the original project roadmap, which may grow more unreliable as the project progresses from phase to phase. Infradapt can provide this kind of project oversight for your next IT initiative, as well as spend the time needed in the early phases of the project. This will ensure that no stone is left unturned and every possible circumstance is accounted for.

Give us a call at 800.394.2301 and don’t plan your next IT project without first consulting with the pros.

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Business Intelligence Can Deliver Efficiency

Business Intelligence Can Deliver Efficiency

Efficiency is the foundation for every successful business. In fact, many would argue that efficient business is the only good business. Those sentiments haven’t always been the prevailing opinion, but as costs continue to rise for the business owner, finding ways to mitigate revenue losses is paramount to sustaining any semblance of a successful business. Because so many people depend on the average business, it has become essential for businesses to work diligently to enter the information age. It can be perceived as a negative by the people you depend on. How can you make BI work for your business without alienating your staff?

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Employees Spend Nearly 80% of Their Time Communicating About Work. You Can Change That

Employees Spend Nearly 80% of Their Time Communicating About Work. You Can Change That

How much time is wasted in your workplace just trying to communicate about potential projects? The notable difference between productivity and stagnation is that one is making you money, while the other is costing you money. Employees spend about 80 percent of their time in meetings, on the phone, or responding to emails, so it falls on the business owner to ensure that communications are as easy as possible so minimal time is wasted.


There are different approaches to this problem. The first place where you can cut down on wasted time is the one that you likely have the most control over: meetings.

Let’s face it; sometimes meetings aren’t as productive as they should be. One way to keep this from happening is to consider how you can make more efficient use of everyone’s time. Start by making a plan and considering what exactly is on the agenda. Ask yourself what the purpose of the meeting is, and if the goal of the meeting could be fulfilled more effectively in another way. If the goal of the meeting can be achieved without collecting your entire workforce into the same room, consider doing so.

Once you have determined that the meeting is the most efficient way to achieve this goal, you want to ensure that you communicate the purpose of the meeting to all of those who must attend. This way, everyone knows what they need to get out of the meeting, and nobody will be confused about why the meeting is being held. This keeps wasted time to a minimum.

By remaining cognizant of what your meetings should accomplish, you’ll inevitably save time and even wrap your meetings up earlier. This can even change the way that employees view meetings. Instead of keeping a meeting going long enough to fill in the space on their schedules, they will see that they can get more done since the goal was achieved earlier than expected.

Another way that you can make your meetings more effective is by creating an outline and then sending the agenda out to everyone at least 24 hours in advance. This way, your workforce knows what they can expect, as well as put together their own notes for quality input throughout the meeting. Another way that you can use this to your advantage is send them something to have read before the meeting starts--in essence, assigning homework. By using these methods, your meetings will be less improvised and more focused.

Once the meeting has ended, you can ask your employees for feedback regarding the process. If you take the time to listen to all participants’ feedback, you can then use it to improve the process and meet goals even more effectively next time. Eventually, it will lead to a chain reaction where meetings go by faster and faster, to the point where you have the process down.

When it comes to streamlining any processes in your office, the right technology can make or break the effort. Technology can help you make your meetings more efficient by utilizing video conferencing or voice chat technologies, so that your team doesn’t have to be in the same place all at once. They can even dial in with their mobile devices from their current location.

This strategic approach to collaboration technology can help your organization thrive, as well as focus on creating more opportunities for profit. To learn more about how there are technology solutions specifically designed to improve collaboration, reach out to us at 800.394.2301.

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Is Cloud Waste Eating Away at Your Company’s Bottom Line?

Is Cloud Waste Eating Away at Your Company’s Bottom Line?

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing?” Well, there’s a hint of truth to this, especially in the business world. Just because your cloud solution allows your business to store a huge amount of data in the cloud, doesn’t mean that you are getting the best return-on-investment. In fact, you might just be unknowingly wasting resources that would be better used elsewhere.

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Managed IT Makes Your Business More Resilient and Efficient

Managed IT Makes Your Business More Resilient and Efficient

Technology is necessary for so many businesses, but some don’t know how best to approach managing it. This is particularly difficult for businesses that have limited budgets and workforces, which leads organizations to simply go without the support in favor of saving some cash. Of course, when something goes wrong, it’s more noticeable and could cause major troubles in the future. This break-fix IT is far from the best way to approach IT maintenance, but how can you make sure your budget doesn’t suffer from it?


The primary reason why break-fix IT is such an issue for SMBs is mostly because they don’t have the freedom that a larger enterprise might have in their budget. This means that they don’t necessarily have funds put away to onboard a team of technicians, and that employees often have to deal with their own IT maintenance in addition to their normal responsibilities. If they have support for their technology troubles, it’s generally done through a break-fix provider who only administers their technology assistance when it’s too late to prevent problems. Either way, your organization is in a tough position.

IT Support is Important for Your Entire Organization
Contrary to popular belief, poor IT administration isn’t just a localized effect on the employee who can’t access their email or navigate their network storage. When one employee can’t do these things, they fall behind. What happens if they are part of a critical project management crew that’s on a deadline? Even more trying is when an employee finds malicious messages in their inbox and the entire organization is threatened by a data breach. Issues like these aren’t difficult to prevent, but if you aren’t proactive about it, prepare for your budget to be punished.

Long story short, if one employee can’t do their job properly, everyone else who relies on them will also be held up. This chain reaction can create incredible downtime which can cripple your organization in both the short term and long term. Eventually, it could become so bad that it’s difficult to recover, making it ideal to simply prevent problems from happening in the first place.

How Managed IT Helps
Preventative measures can ensure your technology doesn’t experience issues in the first place, which can be a significant first step toward preserving your organization. Break-fix measures will only resolve the current problem, not take steps toward preventing them in the future. Managed IT--outsourced technical expertise offered by Infradapt--can allow your business to function as if it had an in-house IT department without adding new salaries to your budget. All you have to consider is a predictable monthly payment, which is something that break-fix IT can never provide.

Through the power of remote technology, we can monitor your infrastructure and address problems that need to be handled promptly, before they have any effect on your operations. This lets yourself and your employees focus on keeping your business running efficiently. For more information about how managed IT can help your business push beyond its limits, reach out to us at 800.394.2301.

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