Here are more IT tips from companies looking to technology for their business solutions.  One company saw the need to update their programs and systems.  Of course there was some dissension from the “can’t teach old dogs new tricks” crowd who just shy from change and the unfamiliar.  The tip from this challenge was to first identify those who were immediately engaged and who saw the need and adopted the change from the get go.  These early adopters would be key in helping those who like the state of affairs that currently exists.  They would be enlisted as advocates or ambassadors to help smooth the way and help educate their coworkers.  One CIO noted that the when championing the acceptance of changing the status quo, to remember that adoption never takes place overnight.  It’s a snowball effect.  When the change is initiated at the highest level of the organization, it signals to all the employees that the decision isn’t just a new tech initiative or something implemented by the IT department but is part of a serious business move.  This is to ensure that this new approach is introduced as part of a larger cultural shift that will promote many company-wide benefits.

Because of growth, one company has expanded its borders to include many different countries (over 60) which posed a variety of different challenges like working in different time zones.  The CIO knew that seamless collaboration and cooperation was going to be critical to maintain the management of the product and the ongoing communication with its customers.  The decision was made to move all of their systems from email, finance, communications, human resources etc. to the cloud.  By having all communications be cloud-based, all information would be accessible from any location and a variety of IT devices.  The day of one-to-one email support requests are being replaced with chats with support teams that may actually include some of the actual developers.  As a consumer, we may expect our issues to be solved in real time, collectively by leveraging the cumulative expertise of a few members of a support team.

Another enterprise found one of their biggest issues that they faced was downtime and a lack of productivity because their IT systems were constantly going offline and not performing causing a real bottleneck and headache for all involved.  Similar to the company mentioned above, they moved the company’s email and business applications to the cloud.  They considered this an incredible challenge because they were looking at a complete overhaul of their systems, including the infrastructure, applications and hardware not to mention having to re-train the workers to use the new tools.  The employees were encouraged to embrace the cutting edge and the state of the art in place of the past failing systems.

I have heard the saying “trial and error” but one company calls it, “test and learn” and used a few different platforms to narrow down what actually works for their Customers.  One was an on-line request for feedback, another source was getting feedback by an invitation-only crowd-sourcing group and then they gathered together a focus group to tease out only those solutions which held the best potential for an actual return on investment.

Next week we will discover what other CIOs have uncovered to make their companies flourish using innovative and creative systems.