2006 TechNO Expo

John Beesley
Director of network solutions
CA Communications

One of the biggest barriers for business in adopting or implementing new telecom technologies is to assume that because it is a technology decision, it should be driven by the information technology department. Most IT departments in small and medium-sized companies are focused on ‘break-fix’ or are what we call ‘heads-down’ IT professionals. They do a great job keeping the firewalls running and e-mail flowing. They have little insight into the business issues and the key process areas that the company needs to tackle to stay competitive.

IT procurement people often buy the best technical solution, or the one they can support the easiest. This is not always the best long-term solution for the company.

The key to making decisions that benefit the company are to have someone with a clear non-technical vision spell out what the company needs to be able to do. Develop ROI models on new capabilities; don’t worry about the technology. If you solve business problems and make your company more responsive to your customer’s needs, the technology will pay for itself. Challenge your vendors to use the business information you give them to cost-justify their solutions. Make business decisions, not technology decisions.

With the convergence of voice and data and the emergence of all this new technology, you can do anything you want with technology. I hear a lot of business owners say, ‘I would never make my clients interact with that type of technology,’ be it e-commerce, integrated voice response systems, or automated attendants. Most of them say this because they have had a poor experience with an application that was not designed properly. Bottom line is that not all clients want the same thing, and the more ways you can provide them with access to your employees and information, the happier they will be and the more business they will do with you.

Will you open new offices or buy another company in the next three to five years? Will you need to support your clients outside the normal 8 to 5, Monday through Friday to stay competitive? Will you outgrow your facility? Will you change the organizational structure to align better with your clients? These are the types of questions that business leaders need to answer, and let the solution providers come up with the technical part. It’s not about how many phones, lines, and voicemail ports you need. It’s about what the business requires to be successful.

Then sit back and let the technologists do their thing.