Seems like it has been a while since I have had a chance to do a post. For the last 3 weeks things have been absolutely crazy in our IT consulting world, but in a good way. We had a chance to go to the Techserve Alliance national conference in Las Vegas. I have heard all the jokes, including the one about it staying in Vegas. We did learn that just because you are pre-checked with the airline, does not mean that your bags are. We got our bags checked with literally a minute to spare and fortunately all made it back to Cincinnati.
Upon return, we signed a support contract for a new customer. They trust us enough to outsource their entire IT applications support to us. We have a real life example of an IT Strategy that was discussed at the conference (See #3). Not only was IT strategy discussed but business strategy as well. Here are some highlights:
1. Market Differentiation - customers have lots of choices, how will you stand out?
2. Improve Systems and methodology for delivering service- excellence, efficiency, depth of service.
3. Outsource what you can-eliminate the busy work that does not add strategic value.
4. Deal with the economy being slow to recover till 2012, spend your money wisely, hire wisely, fire quickly, and refine what is working, stop what is not.
5. Build Alliances with like minded providers in different industries and sell collaboratively to serve the customers' need.
My favorite of these five is number four. Said another way, its takin’ the basset hound to the farm. I’ll expand more on that in my next post.
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