The Implications of System Change
System change is not — or shouldn't be — the main objective of a project, just as going out on a date, changing clothes, or even getting married shouldn't be an end in itself. System change is only a means to an end, an operating decision designed to achieve strategic results. Anyone who changes a system because the old one is obsolete or outgrown, or because the new one uses VoIP and the existing one doesn't, and who doesn't think about what the ultimate objective should be, is firmly setting out in the wrong direction on a dead-end street.
Similarly, as we point out in All You Really Need To Know About Telecom, while a modern car has all sorts of features and electronics, that's not necessarily why you buy a car. In a purely business sense, though, you buy it for only one thing: to get you from point A to point B. Everything else is extra. Yet not everyone buys the least expensive car available.
The same is true for phone systems. If all you need to do is allow person A speak to person B, then simply buy the least expensive phone system you can, and you certainly don't need a consultant to help you do it. But if you're aware that today's phone systems are much more than just phone systems — and you're not sure how to use the technology inherent in that system to strategically get you where you want to go — then you're no longer just talking about transportation, you're speaking about the journey, and possibly about determining the destination as well. And in that case utilizing strategic management consultants like us — who also know quite a bit about telecom — to help guide you may be exactly what's called for.
Simplistically, it's true that telecom systems are computers that provide connectivity and communications. But they're also platforms for collaboration, customer service, CRM, ERP, and many other business processes. They also serve to bridge locations, languages, and cultures, to make small companies appear large, and to allow large companies to appear to be local even though they may be hundreds or thousands of miles away. And that's just the start.
The companion piece to this article is System Change and Relocation. It covers the range of factors pertaining to system change or relocation — or both. We don't know your situation, of course, and so we can't offer specific advice. But we do identify many of the variables and considerations you're like to face, and we give some suggestions regarding your alternatives when the floor is suddenly jerked out from under you.
This perspective is as important as the system change itself because it will allow you to progress beyond solving your problems to achieving the long term results you desire. Incidentally, if you've not read The Teleconvergence Approach (Not Solutions — Results!), please do do before leaving our site.