IT Systems Advice

Systems Advice

So you have decided you need a new IT system - perhaps to manage your work, your inventory or your health & safety performance. Where do you start? I can help you with an functional analysis - a specification of the functions you need from your system, and the data you need to capture. A study of where you are now, where you want to be, and how you will get there if you had your new system. Along the way, we may find improvement opportunities you had not considered before, and metrics that will be useful to measure those goals after implementation. Alogside the functional specification you will need a technical specification, to make sure that your new system will fit into your existing IT infratructure (maybe it needs to integrate with another system, fit with your desktop systems, it needs to be future proof etc.)

These requirements form the basis for selection, and we go out to market place to see what is available. At this stage there are also other aspects to consider, such as cost & licencing, support, feedback from other sites, need to customise (to be avoided) and flexibility.

And finally, after implementation the hard work starts! We need to make sure a good fit within your current (or modified) practices, ensure reporting is in place, and maybe a roadmap to unlock additional functionality when the time is right. And to make the most of your new investment, your system needs to be configured correctly (you may have many options to choose from) and your staff needs to be trained (maybe some workshops might be beneficial).

And some of the above also applies to your existing systems - sweat your assets!