When technology works…

For a change, this post isn’t about information technology but another technology: renewable energy technology. There’s a mixed press for wind farms and the like, thanks to the intrusion of large wind “factories” on our hills, but here’s a story of a small-scale, community-based development that has made a big difference to a small island in Scotland: http://jmtcommunities.blogspot.com/2009/05/eiggs-green-revolution-guest.html.

An example of getting the right technology to meet the needs of the users…

Buying the right IT

In my previous blog (“Buying IT: How to end up with the wrong IT”), I picked out some of the most common mistakes that people make when they are buying IT. This article lists the ways to avoid these mistakes. They may look over-the-top, but the steps can be simplified to suit the purchase.

The seven steps to success

If you want to avoid disaster or failure, then there are some basic steps you can take:

For example, if you’re just buying a printer, you still need to think about what you want it for and the capabilities it has to have (such as how fast it prints), but you can do the research and buy online. Don’t forget to consider the costs of printing though, not just the initial cost of the printer – some inkjets can be very cheap to buy but VERY expensive to run.

1. think about your business needs as a whole, as well as the needs of your users, and write down a structured specification of what you want – that specification provides the basis of requesting quotations from a number of different suppliers
2. set your budget and timescales (realistically) and define what the investment has to achieve, e.g. the time to process an order reduces from 2 weeks to 2 hours
3. research and/or ask around for recommended suppliers – make sure that the suppliers are familiar with the type of technology or development that you want
4. ask at least 3 suppliers for quotes AND for references for similar work, and contact all of the references to ask about the supplier – remember to ask your potential suppliers to sign a confidentiality agreement if you have intellectual property or commercially sensitive information to protect
5. assess the responses, then interview at least 2 suppliers to make sure that they understand your needs, that you are comfortable working with them and that you understand what will be delivered when
6. agree a price, deliverables, timescales and payment schedule and encapsulate that in a contract between you and your chosen supplier
7. monitor progress against the plan and build a good working relationship with your supplier

You can find more detailed help on choosing IT suppliers from the Business Link site.