Save Me

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

I was chatting to a client recently, who I have worked with on a number of occasions, over the last nine years. We have done a variety of projects together and many of my customers come back again and again, or come via recommendation.

Its great to be adding value to projects of all types, with various degrees of tech involved, although often its process and cultural change, that brings the true transformational magic.

While talking, I asked a question that I don’t normally ask. That was even though I knew they used other consultants sometimes, why they so often came back for me to work with them?

Their answer surprised me in that it was, “Well we have found when we work with you, we save far more money, than what we pay you in consultancy”. I was pleased in one respect, but I knew if I told my accountant that, they would tell me I should perhaps be charging much more! I certainly wont be notching up my day rate, however I totally understand where they were coming from.

Where I come into projects ‘late in the day’, often to help recover something or do some ‘marriage guidance’ with them and their suppliers, often its already gone too far already. Fix the small initial issues, ask the awkward questions and think them through early, always saves much more time and effort further down the line. Procuring is generally exciting stuff to the procurer, poring over the detail is not glamorous, but very essential. Lots of managers are visionaries, somewhat less are the ‘finishers’, who suffer from extra charges and hassle, further down the line.

Probably, the earlier in the process I get involved, the more potentially can be saved. Often getting into the detail up front, sharpens minds, better defines scope and provides a better yardstick to measure delivery, when the implementation boots hit the ground. Bringing experience of another hundred or so projects with associated intel’, also provides my clients with a potential toolbox of ideas, strategies and methodologies, which could be adapted to work well in their particular situation. In some cases, I have helped reduce overall ICT system costs from over £4m to well less than half that.

Arriving later in a project to help dig a site out of a failing (or potentially failing) project, often provides fewer levers for means of recovery, that’s my experience. Again its all about the detail. Project history detail, contract detail, concise meeting minutes all present and accessible. I have recovered plenty of projects via different results. Every challenge is a little different and each offers potential to turn individual situations around. There are plenty of examples where thinking back, hard cash has been clawed back or saved. Long running projects can be more like a poker game, than a commercial venture.

Certainly, in the future this will all make me think more deeply on potential engagement value add. Meanwhile, don’t suffer in silence, if you need help please give me a shout!

Related Post: Is the appropriate Critical Friend what your project is lacking to be successful ?

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

The Saints - Save Me.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

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. . . . . . . . . . . .

Enough Time

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy



Time flies
Time crawls
Like an insect
Up and down the walls….



I am sure other scholars of the Post-Punk era, will be able to tell me where those lines come from.

Seriously though, are there many situations, where we find we have ‘enough time’ to do projects well? All projects are of course a compromise, regarding what can be realistically delivered, in the target timescale.

I have worked as implementer on dozens of projects and well as kick-starter and critical friend on others, more recently. The latter is becoming increasingly common and some tell me essential, to ensure projects deliver what they set out to, nothing is missed and they are done to time.

In my case, these have included replacement of housing management systems, implementation of Contractor, mobile working and self-service digital projects, as well as finance and transactional systems. From a time management viewpoint there are a number of gotchas, which often pop up.

In most of these projects, a number of days & a cost has been tendered. The client expectation is that the solution will be brought in, for around this cost/timescale, notwithstanding some change control, during the project. 

Its easy early in a project for suppliers to be a little blasé about how project days are used. Often heard is “Don’t worry, we have plenty of project days”. This phrase always makes me smile, because clearly the supplier in their bid, put in the minimum number of days, in order to do the job. I.E. keeping their costs down, to help win maximum points they could, on ‘Price’. So don’t be fooled by this.

Make every day on site count. Set objectives agreed before the day and before the supplier/implementer leaves, have them sign off objectives complete and yours and their assessment of the day. If they spent half the day onto their helpdesk, trying to iron out issues, that was not your problem and you should probably only pay half a day for that one. Alternatively, if your network was down until 12:30 and the implementer could not start their work, that clearly was the clients fault. Some canny suppliers do this, in my book, all clients should be considering it.

Documenting progress in this way and referencing it in a summary fashion at project board meetings, makes it way easier to see how time is being spent on the project.

All projects are like roller coasters with ups and downs. That’s their nature unfortunately. Getting within three months of the target go-live, that is when the microscope needs to be on the time remaining and what is left to do. By this point, we should have pretty much all deliverables and be ready to start proper UAT, after some reasonable system testing has proved the rough ‘end-to-end’ is there. If not, then this is the time, if we have not done so already, we need your supplier to step up their pace. Otherwise, they are potentially jeopardising go live.

Reasonable suppliers with some persuasion, will step up at this point, in my experience. If it is inevitable we are going to need more time for go-live, it is essential that all tasks required are known and a reasonable revised date set. I always work from the idea that what we ask for, cannot be moveable. I.E. if we say we need another 3 months, client & supplier need to be sure, come hell or hurricane Harvey, we can’t possibly be back in 2 months time, asking for more.

On a final point too, if any deliverables are pushed into phase 2, or a later one. Ensure existing quoted project days are agreed by supplier to satisfy it. This might be where your logs of how existing project time was spent comes in, to help you keep your project costs under control.       

If you have a project that you feel might need some assistance, feel free to DM or contact me for an informal chat.

Related Post: Are sales under-selling software benefits? 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Stranglers – Enough Time.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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