An intercontinental tools implementation proposal
Posted by Bruno Calver
Recently I was asked to assist an effort in putting together a proposal for an IT Service Management (ITSM) tools project for one of our UK based clients. I am currently working offshore for a while to get a feel for organisational life in India, having recently been transferred from London.
So, what does a process consultant have to do with a technical implementation of an ITSM tool? Maybe a better question is, ‘Is an ITSM tools implementation just a technical deployment?’ The answer is a positive ‘NO’ (if that’s not a contradiction in terms).
The tool should support the people and the processes, this is a key principle of a successful tools implementation. It is normal to focus on process areas in clusters and take a staged approach, but you must always balance this with the long terms goals of the project.
As a process consultant I was in a unique position to understand the process and people change that would go with any ITSM tools implementation and its impact. The client wants to see you demonstrate your grasp of the whole picture, failing to do this could result in some unpleasant side-effects.
The next challenge was to tailor the proposal to the client. Understanding the client you are working with is critical as business needs are paramount. We spent a lot of time thinking about the client’s key challenges and how our mix of people, process, tools and governance solutions would address them. Co-ordination across continents on these issues made working together interesting.
So how did we manage this? In fact it was not as complicated as you might think, but it did involve some early mornings for those in the UK and some late nights for me in India. The advantage, however, was that we had an extended working day. Everyday I had 5.5 hours head start on my colleagues in the UK to work on the presentation, they would then pick up the baton at the end of my day and continue the good work…
