photo credit:royalty free
As the Financial Service revolution gains traction, FinTech start-ups can soon expect a period of rapid growth.
Scaling up however, is no piece of cake. Technical challenges aside, a company’s processes should also be re-assessed for compatibility with any additional operational capacity. Unsurprisingly, process problems – or gaps – are a common sight in young businesses trying to expand in scale or scope, regardless of which field they operate in. Vienna Read More
photo credit: ralphbijker via photopin cc
There are many ways to deal with ineffective and inefficient process. You can create workarounds. You can bubble-wrap it with additional processes as a form of assurance. You can always do nothing, especially if you don’t care enough about the results at stake. And sometimes – if you are serious about long-term value of the process – you can fix the root cause itself.
cibsys has recently conducted a process efficiency review for one of our clients. Within that assessment, weidentifiedactivities in the operational process that were a form of assurance rather than value-adding activities. Effort-intensive manual intervention was used to assure that system errors were caught before appearing to customers. Such manual intervention, of course, did not address the root cause of the problem. Neither did it guarantee timely and appropriate fixes. Beloretsk Read More
photo credit: ralphbijker via photopin cc
In two completely different clients in two completely different sectors our consultants have seen on recent projects the same challenges. Both clients were actively seeking to improve both their offering to clients and the efficiency of the processing that supports them after the sale or contract. We saw the same issues despite very different products and very different business models and this lead us to think that this must be a common problem within many industries and businesses. Read More
While writing the previous true story about the real world of IT financing, I was inspired to share another horror story that I’ve encountered in my years in IT. It begins with being sent in to sort out a major counterparty risk project in one of the banks that was supposed to be delivering a solution for Basel 2 compliance. What the project was is probably irrelevant to the story but anyone spending money on a project that at that point had been running for 18 months and not delivering anything – spending in excess of 10 million Euros per annum – must ask serious questions. It quickly became clear that the project had only 4 internal staff with more than 50 externals. Cynically, one could say that the externals were milking the programme for whatever they could get. Slashing the project to 15 people delivered more in 6 months than 60 people had in 18. Adding a proper steering committee and asking real questions rather than the previous “nodding dogs” meant real focus on value for money.
photo credit: Steve Snodgrass via photopin cc
Inspired by recent projects being undertaken by cibsys, I started thinking about some war stories I have heard through the years. The following blog post looks at an example of what could and does go wrong if you don’t ask important questions about IT financials.
The outline of the story was to resolve an IT budget crisis, where the COO was forecasting 10% over, dealing with figures in excess of ten million. In other words, there was a pressing need for fast remedial action to prevent disaster. The regional CIO was a brilliant technical lead with fantastic ideas, who delivered amazing software surrounded by like-minded technical staff. The one lonely voice in his management team who was screaming to be heard was his business manager who could see the pending crisis of budget and funding but was not being listened to. The reality was that the forecast was way off, there was no real spend tracking and that the ledgers actuals were so far behind the reality of spend that no one really knew what was being spent and where the money was going. There was dire need for proper departmental financial controls and proper forecasting in addition to the basic ones in finance department.
Are you using you IT strategy to set your user behaviour? Or are they setting yours?
This week cibsys are extremely proud to introduce the newest version of our IT strategy tool Strategy4IT – our multi-dimensional professional version, which allows users to visualise their IT landscape and easily see where cost savings can be made.
photo credit: kevin dooley via photopin cc
The other day someone asked me why we, as a small company, have effectively two brands: one focused on delivering IT strategy assessments and transitions and another similar brand with a cloud focus. The question was, is there a difference and do you need two brands?
photo credit: flatworldsedge via photopin cc
Another nod to one of the well-listened-to tracks of my student days, but an interesting introduction to some thoughts on the challenges of today’s CIO.
The song starts:
“Even in the quietest moments I wish I knew what I had to do…”
Now, I am sure there are more than a few CIOs who would wish for a few quiet moments, and still more who wish they could predict what they had to do with accuracy.
What is clear is that CIOs (and therefore also CEOs) are facing ever more challenges of increasing complexity. The entry on this blog this week speaks of quite a number, and still more are discussed in our growing list of previous entries on this blog. For those facing up to the challenges of the IT marketplace today, it is essential that time is taken to examine the trends out there, and engage them actively within an overarching strategy. Sadly, too many executives are too busy fire fighting the challenges of delivering their current projects or ongoing service commitments, to be able to pro-actively plan ahead.
Perhaps this is a mad idea, but I see the decision on cloud like the decision on buying a coffee machine for the office. It is a basic management decision, pros versus cons, investment versus benefit, running cost versus opportunity. Lets use this as a simple example to see how cloud compares to coffee as a service (CaaS if you will).
The other week I was considering if we should get a machine for the office. Lets face it, with the sophistication of the machines available, you can easily invest a four figure sum in a great coffee maker to match the quality of the coffee from one of the big chains. Now add supplies for a year for the whole team. This includes not just the cost of great coffee, milk etc., but all those hidden extras like cups, filters; not forgetting extra work for the cleaner or one of the staff to clean it all; then potential service costs and spares…
