In any case, he argues that the challenges in any large project “are often more social and structural than they are technological”, which is why he has “always advocated for ‘Proof of Concept’ stages in any project, backed by rigorous evaluation criteria, these are often key to catching the simple fixes that can make a world of difference. It’s this stage of giving the solution to users at an early stage of a project that is invaluable to enabling IT to be something that makes work better rather than yet another burden on the workforce”.
“When a new system or application is deployed, the user… will immediately examine the system to see how to do what he or she currently does without looking to see if there is a new way of doing it” – Peter Trevaskis, Dell
Trevaskis says it’s important to “engage all stakeholders. A view from the CEO or CIO on how the business operates may well be at great variance to how it really functions on the ground. Understanding this is key”. Companies should interview users at all levels and understand what each level requires in terms of input to the system and, more importantly, the output. “The outputs will dictate what the required inputs will need to be,” he remarks. “Ignore the different levels at your peril. Understanding the product that is to be delivered is also key. Having a clear understanding of the functions but, more importantly, the purpose of the functions is critical to mapping to the business process.”
Feature set
There’s a significant divergence of opinion, however, when Trevaskis addresses the question of whether the IT industry is guilty of being distracted by the possibilities of what IT could do rather than focusing on what it needs to do. His reply is “an emphatic no. Why emphatic? Simply because nobody has ever designed and built a system without a forethought of what business or organisational needs it is seeking to address”. He claims that Dell “canvasses thousands of customers from many countries to understand what their needs are and then builds a solution for the challenges they have presented”.
For instance, Dell’s OpenManage “does not have any features included purely because they are cool. The fact some features are regarded by some as extremely cool is simply a by-product. They address real needs such as providing a single viewpoint and interface for managing your server infrastructure”.
Cranks, however, gives a very different response. “Guilty as charged,” he states. “As companies who are deeply immersed in tech, we see so many possibilities for tomorrow that we can lose focus on where our customers are today. It’s why I value meeting customers so much,” he adds. “Oftentimes when I’m discussing some new innovation such as wireless projection, I get brought back to earth with a simple comment like ‘Well, I have 30 VGA projectors, how does this help me connect to those?’.”
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