Six Technology Mistakes That Executives Make
November 2007 (More monthly articles)
Having worked in the not-for-profit sector for twenty years, I have watched senior managers make mistakes, from time to time, with respect to their computer technology. No one expects executives to be technology experts. At the same time, becoming a bit more technically savvy doesn’t require that you know the ins and outs of the technology. You simply need to know how to use it.
Let’s take a look at some common mistakes that executives tend to make. Many people have compiled their own lists. Here’s mine:
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Mistake Number 1 - Not testing your backups. While most executives understand the importance of backing up their data, few seem to comprehend the importance of testing their backups. Simply backing up on a regular basis can easily give one a false sense of security. Unfortunately, too many have come to realize too late that the nightly backup wasn’t as reliable as previously assumed. Periodically testing your backups will confirm that what is assumed to be backed up can in fact be restored. Going through this exercise will reveal problem areas that need to be addressed and remedied before disaster strikes. As a case in point, I know of one organization that faithfully backed up its production databases on a nightly basis only to realize later that the real “production” database had been the “test” database. The nature of test databases is that they tend to be temporary. After several months, the test database needed to be reused for another purpose. After overwriting it, the IT staff realized their mistake but had no backup from which to restore, since they never backed up the test database. Why should they? After all it’s just test data, or so they thought. Had they periodically tested their backups by restoring data, they would have discovered the error.
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Mistake Number 2 – Continuing with manual processes that can be automated. In today’s environment, people are often expected to do more with fewer resources. Members and donors often expect more services from the organization, but the board doesn’t always come through with funding. In addition, increased demands can strain existing resources. To overcome these challenges, examine manual processes to find what can be automated. Are statistics being gathered manually? Find a way to report the data automatically. Is data being captured from members and donors and manually re-entered into a database? Build a web application for constituents to enter the data for you. Are you regularly exporting data from one database and importing it into another? Perhaps the time has come to build one database to include both sets.
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Mistake Number 3 – Hiring the best techno-geek rather than the best technology leader. Let’s face it, we all need technological geeks to run our businesses. However, someone who is great at implementing the latest technology gadgets is typically not the best person to provide the direction the organization requires for deploying information technology. Sometimes a manual process makes more sense than a computer-assisted process. Sometimes a 5-year old piece of software or equipment is handling a process quite well. Sometimes the best solution is to outsource a process. Each of these scenarios calls for a business decision to be made by someone in a leadership position. The computer geek is likely not the person you want making such decisions.
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Mistake Number 4 – Not documenting processes. Every organization has processes for common operational tasks, such as making payroll, handling accounts payable, printing reports, and more. Often these processes are known by a select few, typically one person. What happens if that one person quits, goes on vacation, is fired, or heaven forbid gets hit by the proverbial “bus?” In order to be prepared, organizations should take note of their critical processes and document them with enough detail for anyone to follow through in the event the employee is unavailable.
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Mistake Number 5 – Under estimating the total cost of implementing a new piece of technology. A new technology almost always costs more than the purchase price of the hardware and software needed to make the technology work. One must consider the planning involved, the management of the project, staff training, communicating with constituents, consulting fees, annual software license fees, and daily maintenance.
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Mistake Number 6 – Failing to consider the impact of a technology initiative on existing processes, staff, members, and donors. Too often organizations have attempted to reduce costs or increase productivity by automating a manual process, only to find that the attempt fails or achieves only minimal success. The reason can often be traced back to a failure to engage the people who are supposed to use the system. If they don’t perceive value in using it, they won’t. The value to them is usually the time saved by the new approach. Perhaps the system is not user-friendly. Perhaps it takes away one process only to add another more cumbersome one. Perhaps its workflow changes the order of the current manual process. Unless the users are engaged in the design and testing, they aren’t likely to embrace it when it goes live.
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In Summary
Senior Executives are generally not information technology experts and IT staff are often lacking in the knowledge of how the business operates. Senior Executives of not-for-profits are responsible for achieving a positive bottom line and making their stakeholders happy. To the extent that each group can understand the other, the more successful the organization is likely to be at employing information technology to achieve its business objectives.
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