Picture the scene: You have identified a hole in your IT capabilities and start researching possible solutions. The outcome is positive with a couple of front-runners, both of which will greatly improve the IT department, and business as a whole. Now all you need is commitment from your internal stakeholders to pursue this new avenue. For many IT managers this is a hurdle which is often too big to overcome – internal stakeholders fail to fully engage and the project is never implemented.

But that doesn’t mean your new project is destined to fail. At MSM Software we have helped many clients overcome this issue by building a business case which provides all internal stakeholders with the information they need to commit to a project. If you find yourself in the same situation these top tips will help you achieve buy in.

7 top tips to achieve buy-in for a new IT project

1. Ensure you include all internal stakeholders in the process. All too commonly the focus goes straight to the budget holder but you also need to consider the end user and those who will be involved with the integration and on-going maintenance. Ultimately, the more involved someone feels, the more they will invest in an idea.
2. Speak the language of each stakeholder group. The budget holder will want to know very different information than the end user, so ensure their unique needs and concerns are addressed. Avoid using jargon and acronyms if they aren’t required.
3. Engage as early as possible. The earlier you engage the earlier you can address stakeholder needs and concerns. Early engagement can also counteract the fear of change, which can often lead to objection. After all, it’s only natural for people to take exception to something when they have been excluded from the process.
4. Give a clear rationale for the project. Define the project goals and scope clearly. The rationale should provide a clear understanding of the reasons why the project is required. It should include background information about the current situation, including the project drivers and challenges, and what the likely benefit would be. Any business case should always be put into the context of the overall strategy and goals of the company – without this your project is unlikely to gain approval from decision makers.
5. Be explicit about the benefits. Clearly identify each of the benefits and ensure they can be measured in quantifiable terms so improvements can be assessed after the project has been completed. Remember, negative benefits can be as powerful as positive benefits. These would outline the impact if a project isn’t completed, for example, reduced market opportunity due to poor data quality.
6. Identify and manage risks. It is crucial that any risks are controlled and contained if a project is to have any chance of success. A summary of the key risks facing the project will ensure that, if they happen, they will be properly managed and not affect the delivery of the project. Assessing risk will also demonstrate to senior management that you have considered this project from all angles and have strategies in place to overcome any potential challenges.
7. Listen and communicate. If you are going to take the time to ask stakeholders for their opinions make sure they know their comments and suggestions are valued. Provide feedback and keep everyone up-to-date throughout the entire process.

About The Author:

Rachel Stidworthy is Marketing Executive at MSM Software, a UK based software support and development house.

What is Hybrid Cloud Computing, exactly?

For the uninitiated, some folks aren’t so crazy about the public cloud. There are some security and stability issues that have arisen in the last few years in the cloud space. The big idea is that through a combination of open cloud services and in-house cloud-based data management solutions companies can reap the benefits of the open cloud without sacrificing security over stability. In other words, the hybrid cloud allows companies to maintain high levels of control over mission-critical data while keeping a much more open approach to less critical data in a public cloud.

Four Key Considerations for Hybrid Cloud Computing planning

1. Get a Handle on IT Application needs – Planning on the IT level is a very complex conversation. Before you even start researching potential public cloud vs. private cloud vendors, you’ll need to gain a handle on what your organization needs on the application front. This means rightly dividing what applications are suitable for the public cloud, and what applications are best managed in-house. This means deciding how applications will be deployed. For instance you may need to look into new deployment technology. For instance, flash array technology tends to deliver a higher throughput for application access times. However you go about having this conversation, this is among the first phases in the planning process.
2. Be honest about hybrid cloud implementation challenges – There’s a reason the public cloud has seen a growth explosion in recent years, and that’s because it’s fairly easy to set up and implement. The hybrid cloud is not the case. There are lots of hoops to jump through, and you need to be realistic about the challenges your organization will face in the implementation process.
3. Factor in Management Tools – One of the most crucial aspects of hybrid cloud planning is determining how the cloud will be managed. A quality hybrid cloud management tool will place a high emphasis on resource provisioning and scalability. On-premise clouds usually have their own customizable management tools, while public clouds usually have built-in monitoring tools. Either way this is something you and your team will need to pre-determine.
4. Ramp up Organizational Training – Odds are your IT staff is coming from different places in regards to hybrid cloud-centered skillsets. As you are planning, you have a perfect opportunity to train staff on key skillsets required to manage the hybrid cloud.

Conclusion

As you enter these complex planning conversations, it’s important to remember why you’re implementing a hybrid cloud solution into your infrastructure. The road ahead will not be easy, but your organization will reap the benefits of a more stable cloud in the long run.

About the author: Dawn Altnam works in the Midwest, and she enjoys following the business tech world. After furthering her education, she has spent some time researching her interests and blogging of her discoveries often.

Additional Posts On This Topic

Big Data | Thinking Outside The Firewall

Not Quite Ready To Live In The Cloud

We all know that the vetting process for selecting an outsourced vendor for your business can be cumbersome and stressful. The search begins by researching a potential pool of vendors – either by talking to colleagues for referrals or performing a good old fashioned search. Then, you’re tasked with the arduous process of contacting and interacting with the list of potential vendors, providing each of them with detailed information about your business and the project at hand. Of course, the vendors most likely won’t ask the same questions, so you’ll have to field unique questions, taking more of your precious time. And if any of the potential vendors are at all “sales oriented”, they’ll attempt to gain access to even more of your time in order to start building a relationship with you which they hope will lead to a closed deal. It’s enough to drive any reasonable business person past the brink. But before you allow the stress of the process to impact your interactions with these potential partners, spend some time thinking about the “Golden Rule” and how it applies to vendor selection. In doing so, you might just find yourself getting better rates and service from the selected provider. 

View Your Vendors as a Partner Instead of a Commodity

The first step in alleviating the pain of the vendor selection process is to change your outlook. Most often, vendor negotiation is viewed as adversarial. And to some extent, this is reasonable and understandable. After all, you’re looking to find the best vendor for your needs at the lowest possible rates. And, on the flip side, they’re trying to win your business at the highest negotiated rates without losing the deal. But focusing purely on the financial impacts of the deal will not only ignore some of the more intangible benefits and needs of the relationship, but it could also put unwanted stress on the negotiation process that only makes a commodity out of the relationship. A vendor can be so much more than a commodity – they can be a valuable partner in your business, helping you innovate, differentiate from your competitors, grow sales, and add value well beyond the contracted services. By viewing the relationship differently, you open the door to unleashing these intangibles, which will only help your business flourish.

Treat Others the Way You Want to be Treated

Does your business sell? If so, then you no doubt have an understanding of how difficult it can be when “the shoe is on the other foot.” You know how difficult it can be to try to obtain all of the desired information from your prospects and most likely wish that they would treat you better. How would it feel if your prospects answered all of your phone calls promptly, or followed up with all of the required information, or told you the truth about their intentions or reservations? Most likely, after you picked your jaw up off of the floor, you would thank them profusely for treating you like a partner and would bend over backwards to help them out. So why would you treat your vendors or potential vendors any differently? 

Best Practices for Vendor Relations

So what are the best ways to treat your vendors or potential vendors in order to get a healthy dose of low prices and high quality service in return? Follow these guidelines:

• Be honest in all of your negotiations, even if it’s difficult
• Return correspondence, even if it’s to tell them you’ve decided against them
• Be quick to respond
• Open up with them about your true intentions and what you’re looking for

These may seem like simple tips, but they’re often lost in an attempt to “get the best rates” or save time. But you’ll find that, by treating others fairly, you’ll get far more in return. Vendors are a key part of every business, so don’t make the same mistake most companies do by trivializing the partnership. Treat your vendors they way you want to be treated, and a true partnership can be forged and the results just might pleasantly surprise you.

 
Will Schneider is President of insightMedia, Inc. a company that helps businesses find SEO and fulfillment companies.

Additional Posts on Vendor Management

A Project Manager’s Guide To Negotiation Success

Vendor Selection and RFI, RFP, RFQ

Vendor Selection: Get Your House In Order

Break It to Them Gently

I am not talking here about here about sitting your stakeholders down for a cup of coffee before gently telling them the situation in a roundabout way. What I mean is that you shouldn’t grab the phone as soon as you find out a problem and scream “It’s all gone horribly wrong!” in a shaky voice. There are ways of giving out this bad news which will help you control the situation and show that you are in control. Ideally, there will be a project meeting coming up soon enough for you to leave it until then but far enough away for you to organize yourself a little before then.   

Don’t Delay

One common error you will want to avoid is that of sitting on the issue for too long. Maybe you are afraid of the reactions the bad news might provoke but by putting this moment off you will only make matters worse. If there is no project meeting on the horizon then you will probably want to arrange some sort of get together to discuss the situation. Of course, you need to weigh up all the different factors and decide just how urgent this problem is. If you feel as though things are running out of your control then you will want to try and calm the situation down as quickly as you can. If this is the case then it could be that it works out better for you to have a project team meeting first of all, in order to let you gather your thoughts and get some ideas on the way forward before you speak to the stakeholders.    

Give Them Options

Once you tell your team members and stakeholders about the issues they are sure to expect you to show them what options are now open to them. What you most want to avoid is the situation of telling them about a problem and then admitting that you have absolutely no idea what to do about it. Before your meetings you should consider all of the possible options, from starting all over again to toughing it out with the same approach. You will want the meeting attendees to contribute with their ideas but you don’t want them to come up with obvious answers which you hadn’t thought of beforehand. Try to go into the meeting as well-prepared as you can be and ready to seize the opportunity to put across some new options you have come up. It might even be a chance to make the whole project better than it was going to be before you ran into these problems anyway.    

Don’t Get Into the Blame Game

If you are working with a big project team and a number of stakeholders then there is likely to be no shortage of people who are only too happy to throw the blame around when things go wrong. I guess that it is human nature for anyone to do this but it isn’t going to take your project to a good place. Instead, you should look to lead honest and constructive discussions about how to get the project back on track. Pointing the finger of blame around the room is only going to cause you to waste time and might cause resentment to build up in the room as well. You need to make it clear from the outset that you aren’t there to assign blame but rather to find the best way forward for the piece of work. Of course, you will want to make sure that the same issue doesn’t arise again in the future, so if it is someone else’s mistake which has caused the problems then you will need to take the time to find out why it happened in the first place and what now needs to be done so that it won’t happen again in the future. However, this is something which can happen away from the meeting room.     

Ben Ferris is the founder of Cobalt Project Manager, online project management software for teams.  Read more project management tips and tricks on the Cobalt Project Manager Blog.

Employee to Consultant…What? How?

4 Tips To Success With Recruiters

The Recruiter and Project Manager Relationship

Job Hunting for the Experienced Candidate

A few extra….

For the male PMs out there, you are a leader and must look like one.  You don’t need to be on the cover of GQ, but you certainly need to present well.  Visit these sites for some insight into dressing for the occasion: http://www.trunkclub.com & http://www.primermagazine.com.  Sorry ladies, I don’t dare!  Feel free to put some suggestions down below.

Check out these sites as well…

The Grounded Edge – Clear, unfiltered perspective from a recruiters desk

Manager-Tools – Great for job candidates, as well as managers!

As always, I want to talk WITH you and not AT you.  Please submit topics you would like my insight on…or one of the experts in my network.  What are you challenged with?  Leadership areas…managing team members…specific project management issues?  Let me know!