Before Deciding on the Technology…

by | Dec 19, 2017 | Uncategorized

When you run into problems with your company’s systems, it is tempting to blame the technology. As I described in don’t blame the technology, technology is just a tool. Having a strong multi-disciplinary team is more important.

Of course you want your team to use the best tools, but don’t start by choosing your tools.

First, make sure you have the team in place that will make this project and future projects a success.

If you need to implement a new business process or to replace an old system, ask yourself:

  • Build or buy?
  • Internal team or external?

Build or Buy?

If your requirements are broadly similar to other businesses, it will probably be more efficient to buy a software package from a software vendor. It should only need some minor configuration changes.

On the other hand, if your needs are very specific to your own business, you will need a custom application.

Build Buy

Build a custom application when

  • Requirements are unique to your business.
  • You are expecting rapid changes.
  • Projects are strategic and ambitious.
  • Business importance is high e.g. competitive advantage.
  • It must be integrated with in-house systems.

Buy packaged software when

  • Requirements are standard e.g. Accounting.
  • Processes are mature and stable.
  • It has limited impact on business e.g. mundane tasks.
  • You need to reduce costs.

Internal Team or External?

An internal team would be able to create and maintain many business applications over the long term. They would have the deep knowledge of your business and systems and become more experienced with the chosen technology.

With LiveDataset, we recommend using our experts to work alongside your team. During the initial projects they can transfer technical knowledge and best practices to your team. Then your own team can keep delivering and enhancing LiveDataset-based projects for years to come.

Hiring an external firm like Krescendo can quickly provide the technical expertise and experience for your project. They will need to work with the right business people in your organization. So the project team actually spans the two companies.

Bringing in an experienced IT consulting firm is ideal when you want to quickly solve a specific problem.

Either way we recommend:

  • A multi-disciplinary team with business and IT specialists.
  • Internal business ownership to manage adoption.
  • Some technical expertise from the software vendor for initial projects.
  • Adopting an Agile approach, e.g. minimum viable system.

And then you can start thinking about what technology to use. And of course we can help you with that too.