Newsletter February 2005

Voluntary Simplicity

• The Problem: It's Hard to Keep IT Simple
• Are You A Victim?

Simplicity is one of the primary ways for businesses to save money and reduce risk. Companies that need one delivery truck tend to have one delivery truck; companies that need one office tend to have one office. But when it comes to information technology, simplicity is often the last thing they have. Those that need one database tend to have five--on three different kinds of computers, supported by two outside consultants and three staff members, one of whom just gave notice. In this month's edition, we're going to talk about the prevalence of this problem and how you can know if you're a victim.

The Problem: It's Hard to Keep IT Simple

A recent article in CIO magazine addressed the general issue of budget cuts and technology investment, making the usual complaint about how financial people often "just don't understand" technology needs. For our purposes, the article made one essential point: The best way to save money is not to reduce your entire budget but to reduce the number of systems you have. Why? Because most companies have many systems which do the same thing. Simplifying allows you to reduce headcount while improving productivity.

Sounds great. At the same time, to quote Yogi Berra, it's déjà vu all over again. Every few years I read an article about how companies have too many redundant systems. It came up during Y2K—did anyone really know what systems they had or didn't have? It comes up every time a virus breaks out and companies learn after the fact that they had all kinds of hardware and software they just didn't know about. Simplicity seems to be one of those values that we preach but don't practice.

By the way, just because you're not a big company, don't think this problem doesn't apply to you. Often, a growing company in a rush to get things done creates a technology mess that is really hard to clean up.

Are You a Victim?

Understanding why this happens is beyond the scope of this article. The first step, however, is to determine if you and your company are victims of redundancy and excessive complexity. Here are five questions to ask. Don't worry, they're not technical.

• How many hardware vendors do you pay per year?
• How many software vendors do you pay per year?
• How many systems are dependent on the knowledge of one person who had better not retire/quit/get hit by a bus?
• How many times do your IT people tell you it's hard to answer your business questions because the information needed is all over the place?
• How many different logins do you have to use to access your company's systems?

If you don't like your answers, contact us.

Red Three Consulting: Transforming Information Technology into Answer Technology