Companies
All these years I worked as an IT architect. In every company I’ve worked with, there are always the same problems. I’m talking about companies where IT is not the main business. There are of course technical problems, but there are also communication and thinking problems on different levels. Often IT is seen as a kind of “necessary evil” and software developers as coders.
I made the decision to help companies take control of IT, maintain it, save huge amounts of money, and accelerate their business growth. My goal is to turn IT from a “necessary evil” into a strength that also makes the difference compared to the competition.
Customers
I work with companies that don’t see IT as their main business but have at least 100 employees in total. Both the company and its employees benefit in several ways. Management gets control of IT costs and the schedule for changes in future development. The business departments will finally see results instead of hearing “that is not possible”. Software development will have more fun developing new features than fretting that meetings never end without results.
Mission
I solve the problems of high IT costs and especially slow IT implementations of the necessary business changes.
After finishing my work, my customer has control over his own IT system. The IT department (or whatever the structure is) is able to take care of the business needs and provide accurate estimates of the cost and timing of any change.
I come into my client’s organization as part of the team and, depending on the size of the organization, need between
3 and 15 days to analyze the situation and find out what can be improved and what the main problems are. Then I offer the company three different packages:
1. I get into a project, solve the problems, do the necessary training and finally hand over the results.
2. Like package 1. plus, I will stay and advise the company for a period of time until the necessary staff has been found to replace me after training.
3. Like package 1. plus, I will look for my replacement myself. It may be that the necessary people are already in the company, but it may also be that I have to search the market. Most likely it will be the mix of the two. Finally, I train my substitute before I leave. With this option, the company also retains the ability to contact me if I have any questions or problems, regardless of my calendar.
Challenges and approach
The most common challenges relate to mindset and the prevailing belief that it is impossible to control IT and its costs.
Here are some general indicators that show my service is required:
• Managers think that it is better not to change too much in IT, as every change is a risk – “Never change the running system”. Well, those who do not develop further cause dissatisfaction and high costs after a certain period of time, which can lead to a breakdown.
• Managers outsource IT to save money – offshore instead of in-house investments.
• Adjustments and adherence to frameworks, even if they do not fit well.
• Too many meetings with no results
• Performance problems
• Takeover of competitors and merging of different systems
• Try to solve problems with different development processes like SCRUM, despite a wrong understanding of the roles in the project and in the organization.
Many forget that it is not a question of whether technology A or B is used. It’s also not about trying the latest or frameworks. It is important to assess whether the project makes economic sense and how to get the best possible result from the point of view of requirements, economic efficiency, subsequent maintenance, customer satisfaction and performance.
I have a concept for successful large software projects. It describes the project structure, the roles with their responsibilities and rights (there is often a gap here), teams and meetings, resource planning for the key roles and finally the steps to start.
Trends
The biggest trend in Germany and internationally is that the CEO is of the opinion that IT is expensive, difficult and impossible to plan. This is the biggest problem, the mindset. Because they think these problems are NORMAL, they don’t even try to solve them. All of their competitors have the same problems and so it then seems perfectly normal.
My mission is to change the way people think. People realize that there are solutions to every problem as soon as we look for them.
Condition in Germany
In Germany and especially in my region we have large companies whose main business is not IT, but in which they need a large IT department, such as Volkswagen, Porsche, Daimler, Bosch, Audi, Lidl, Siemens, all banks, insurance companies, electricity providers, Telecommunications, etc. all have the same problems with IT. As a real estate investor with my wife, we often deal with many of these companies and, as customers, they very often cause problems for us because IT is not working as it should.
Why me and not a larger consulting company?
The other consultants have not been able to solve the previous problems with the usual approach. My approach is different. As a chess supervisor, I see “the whole board”, from requirements and evaluation of profitability to structure, personnel, approach to meetings, to frameworks and code.
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