Management Information |
Provisioning/User Management System Upgrades: Part I -- Ten Reasons Why Not To Do An Upgrade
Tommy Sherman daily monitors a helpdesk-provisioning queue for a large company. The current provisioning/user management system was written with homegrown software. It has not had a major update for several years. Each day, he is getting more and more frustrated. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot keep up with the increasing workload. New employees are screaming for their system ids and have no way of checking their id creation status. Existing employees are demanding timely updates to their ids when they transfer across business units. Ex-employees exist in the system months after departure. His frustrated manager will be meeting with him this afternoon to talk about his "unresponsiveness." The above is a real world example. It may happen if a provisioning/user management system is not meeting company needs and there are no plans to upgrade. This is a two part series on the dark side of provisioning/user management upgrade projects. Upgrade will be defined here to include new hardware and software, and also the supporting environment of business processes, roles, organizations, business rules, etc. This article will discuss reasons why these projects do not get started or fail to reach completion. The next article will cover how to overcome these reasons. Here are ten reasons why the needed systems improvement are not implemented: 1. No Budget IT budgets are frozen or only the most needed projects get funded. This will impact hardware/software maintenance, hiring or contracting needed resources, and more. 2. Infrastructure is Not Sexy. The budget is there but fixing an existing provisioning system is not considered a priority. Sadly, many companies see broken systems or processes as the "cost of doing business." Or companies will do only the minimum upgrade to keep IT infrastructure running. But beware, as once was said in a well-written article "Cheap is Expensive." It will come back to haunt you. 3. No Technical, Management, Or Financial Champions It may be a great idea but there may not exist anyone who can sell this at the mid or upper management level in your company. Also, you may experience "champion burnout" - where past champions who unsuccessfully tried to sell the upgrade no longer wish to do it again. 4. Business Case Is Hard to Write Only by including both "soft" and "hard" savings can can one get the true picture of an upgrade's return. "Soft" costs include user login downtime and productivity declines (cost of finding the current information about a person, document, or hardware device), increased calls to helpdesk and decline of helpdesk staff morale) and more. However, "soft" savings are often considered irrelevant by management and usually the numbers aren't there if you rely on hard savings alone. 5. Can't Agree on Software/Hardware For various reasons, technical types cannot always agree which is the best software to meet company needs. Differences may be over preferred operating system, vendor, hardware, software configuration and features, or political/personal whims. 6. Undocumented Current Environment Perhaps due to turnover or lack of time, no one has documented (or recently updated) what the "AS- IS" user management/provisioning environment looks like. This includes roles and responsibilities, business rules and processes, and software/hardware. 7. No Shared and Communicated Vision No one has written and communicated a possible "TO-BE " roadmap for provisioning/user management software to decision makers and influencers. This may be due to lack of understanding of the "AS-IS" environment, politics, lack of time, or lack of knowledgeable resources to create such a roadmap. To ensure overall success, the "TO-BE" roadmap ideally should advocate a phased approach. 8. No Project Resources All available staff who would be working on a software upgrade are busy doing other tasks (like system administration, user support, or other projects). So, there are no available resources that can be dedicated full/part-time to the project. Also, the company may be reluctant to hire outside consultants to perform the upgrade for various reasons. 9. No Agreement on Upgrade Requirements It is possible to agree on vision, product, and project team and still get nowhere! Reasons could be an honest difference of opinion on configuration settings, hardware setup, features to enable, degree of customization, and more. Unclear and disputed requirements from the start will likely bring disastrous results. 10. Other Concerns These are other factors too numerous to mention which could impact getting an upgrade project off the ground. - security concerns, lack of physical space for hardware, no organization/resources for administration, remote locations building their own unapproved "underground" solutions, organizational changes and mergers (with new organizations having their own IdM vision), vendor changes and mergers, and more. Conclusion I hope that this does not discourage you from moving forward on getting your provisioning/user management underway. By identifying possible obstacles, you can then begin to plan to overcome each of them. In the last article of the series, we will discuss what you can do to get your provisioning /user management upgrade on management's radar. For Further Information Abridean "15 Rules for a Successful User Management and Provisioning Project" Gomolski, Barbara "When Cheap Is Expensive" Computerworld 2/16/2004 Lewis, Jamie, Blum, Dan "The Enterprise Directory Value Proposition" Burton Group 1999 http://www.burtongroup.com/ Microsoft "The Provisioning Challenge" http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/mps/challenge.asp About The Author Hallett German (hallett.german@alessea.com) is president of Alessea Consulting (www.alessea.com) specializing in Identity Management, Project Management, and Business Development. Copyright 2004 Alessea Consulting All Rights Reserved
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Reject a Job Applicant A Nightmare That Really HappenedOver 10 years ago, when I worked as a manager at a major corporation, I received a call from a headhunter about a magnificent job opening. It sounded like the perfect job for me. Culture Management and Creativity Many concepts in the fields of managing creativity are very much applicable to culture management in general. The same concepts that foster creativity and innovation also maximise human capital potential, increase productivity, reduce costs and maintain competitive advantage etc. The 70% Solution: Practical Testing and Version Control "What do you mean you need to push back the launch date?"Says the CEO. Says the CFO. Innovation Management - how does the user benefit? Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. What is Knowledge Management Anyway? When you think of all the things companies have, you do not always consider the knowledge they have. For instance, a company is only as good as its employees, its resources, and its knowledge. Innovation Management - Time to Market or Time to Success? Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Meetings: Don't Just Show Up, Stand Out and Shine Meetings, whether they're regularly scheduled routines in your company or now-and-then get-togethers, can be a place for you to gain positive visibility and to showcase your capabilities. Here are three strategies that will help you stand out and shine. Its All About The Customers, Baby If you want to ensure a steady stream of customers in your business, you must always remember why you're in business in the first place.Sure you want to earn a decent income for yourself, but you also want to provide a useful service don't you?That second reason should take precedence over the first. Small Business Outsourcing: An Introduction Outsourcing is the delegation of a business process to an external service provider. The service provider will then be responsible for the day-to-day running and maintenance of the delegated process. People - You Cant Make Them What Theyre Not Many business people and managers are spending too much time trying to change the underperforming people who work for them. They seem to believe that if they train people - tell them what to do or even threaten them with the sack - then the performance level will go up. Managing the Human Resource Project We obtain strategic results by aligning HR mission, vision and values. The following overview highlights a macro approach to project management. Teamwork Training: Learning to Build a Successful Team Teamwork is a process that can be experienced outdoors and well as in the workplace. A lesson learned in one environment can be applied equally well in another. Innovation Management - idea selection, development and commercialisation, what are the differences? Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Employee Retention: Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business The retention of highly skilled knowledge workers is one of the major challenges today for all organizatons. Knowledge workers are those whose work primarily requires the use of "mental power rather than muscle power. Keeping and Motivating the Best Employees Keeping and Motivating the Best EmployeesIn "You Win With People" we talked about the need to hire the very best people to build your team. Now that you've done that the question becomes, how do you keep them, and how do you keep them motivated. Problem Solving - Think Cleopatras Ass Picture the scene. Anthony pops down to the guardhouse, partly because he wants a break with the lads, but also because he has a problem. Why Saying Well Done Works Encouraged by the recognition, Sarah Lewsiton went home from work that day, full of self-belief and wonder that she had made the leap at last.In her last job, she had always felt that she was unsuitable, in fact below par, for the place. Collections Management How long does it take your customers, clients or patients to pay you for the products or services you have provided?Have you developed a consistent collection management program?Your answer to the above questions is a leading indicator as to how well you collection management is. Sending an invoice doesn't always result in payment. Why Businesses Fail - And What You Can Do About It! Have you unintentionally set your business up for failure?No one sets out to fail! Most business owners read all thestatistics (maybe more than once) before they open theirdoors. Many know the reasons why businesses fail. Sweet Parting Of Ways Why settle for bad feelings when your employee leaves the firm? Human resource managers can help to sweeten the occasion during the exit interview, and get valuable information to help the company in the new knowledge age.More often than not, human resource (HR) managers place more importance on job interviews than on exit interviews. |
home | site map | contact us |