Expectation Dislocation
by: Edward Stringfellow
Expectations are a funny thing, especially in the technology world I live in. I am constantly amazed at how LOW companies’ expectations are for their technology infrastructure and support. It’s almost as if they are just waiting for the next failure to occur – not a fun way to work. What happens is the expectation turns into an excuse for not getting work completed, and eventually you just have apathy about the whole deal.
This is a dangerous situation for any business because it directly impacts productivity and morale. Time and time again I talk about how server downtime can be a thing of the past, end-user calls resolved in minutes, and people will be able to focus 100% on using the technology provided to them, not “working on it”. It’s simply not something they can grasp. “How”, they ask, “could you possibly make the end-users LIKE technology and have it INCREASE our productivity and profits, rather than just be a necessary cost of doing business?” The answer is to have a technology partner that focuses exclusively on providing these services and does it a fixed-fee that is typically 30% less than in-house or hourly support arrangements.
The other side of this coin is companies that have very high expectations for their technology infrastructure but don’t make the commensurate investment to meet those expectations. I see this often with regard to hardware/software spend. They have out-dated equipment and an hourly “IT guy” and wonder why they do not have 100% uptime. By deferring needed upgrades they end up in a place with a large capital investment required just to get back to a stable infrastructure, generally after experiencing downtime and failures leading up to this point.
The key is the balance in the expectations and the investment required to meet them. No, I’m not saying just spend a lot of money and anything is possible, let’s be smarter than that. I’m saying find a technology partner that will get all infrastructure on the proper hardware/software life-cycles to ensure realistic annual technology spend that doesn’t break the bank and will meet your expectations.
Our goal is for all of our Clients’ expectations to continually be met (and raised!) for what technology can do for their businesses at all levels. It’s a huge win for us when Clients’ tell us what an improvement our Service Desk has made on morale for all the end-users or how smooth a server upgrade went. If you are suffering from “expectation dislocation” please contact us to have a discussion about how we can turn this around for your company!
