Are you getting the right advice?

I come across the results of bad or misguided advice a lot in my position at Evolve IT. Many times this amounts to people spending a heap of money on things they don't need in order for someone else to validate their worth to a client, or to turn a potential client into a fiscal business transaction.

It kind of gets to me that these companies are obviously so interested in looking after the "now" that the later just doesn't come into the equation.

Let me explain this by using an example:


A customer that I work with needed a customer information system a couple of years ago and they asked their IT guys what they should do. He obviously had some knowledge in this area and developed a system for them based on an Access database so that they can track this information.

over the last few years this project has had many iterations and every time something needs to be done for them, it costs them a couple of thousand dollars. The "solution" to their problem ties the developer / IT guru to the company for as long as the system exists and gives the company very little room to naturally evolve their systems as their processes evolve.

Now, an alternative solution here would have been a simple CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system whereby the IT guru could have outsourced to someone that really knows these things and provided them with a long term solutions from a variety of possible vendors, not just fixing the immediate with the limited knowledge that he had on this field.

There are a variety of solutions available in this genre of business application varying from free and open source (Free CRM) to paid (SalesForce.com) to premium (Microsoft and Siebel). Instead of reinventing the wheel here, the solution could have been based on something that had a roadmap for the future and, therefore, room to grow with the company. The solution that the customer ended up with simply paid the IT guru to develop it and maintain it for all these years, without giving back the benefits that an equivalent financial investment in a best-of-breed system would have given over the years.

So from this example, I want to explore the concept of advice in IT:

Are you getting the right advice?

obviously when you are looking at implementing something, or your IT guru has highlighted an area for improvement, then you are going to go to the people that know your network best - your IT guru('s).

I am not implying shopping this work around, as when you trust your guru they are also going to do the best by you.

There are a couple of ways of ascertaining as to whether you are getting the right advice from your IT professional:

1. Have you been presented with a number of alternatives?
2. Has the solution worked for other companies like yours?
3. Has the solution got both short term and long term goals?
4. Has the provider got a solid list of reference sites in the same area of expertise?

If you can answer yes to all of these filtering questions, then your IT guy is doing the best by you.

If not, then you should seek some impartial advice and contact me so that we can catch up for a chat.