IT project management is a complex endeavor that requires expertise, specialized skills, and the available budget to support a sufficient amount of dedicated workforce in order to achieve success. When any of these critical components are lacking, the failure rates for IT projects are very high.
Many small-to-medium-sized businesses simply do not have the capability to maintain a full-time workforce that has the skills to manage a complex IT project. This is why it is frequently the best decision for a business owner to bring in outside help. This is especially true if any of the IT projects are system upgrades for critical-path functions of the organization.
Project Management Considerations
When deciding to bring in an IT consulting team for project management or to outsource project management, the following considerations need to be taken into account:
- Availability of Internal Staff: Are the current internal staff already overloaded with work? How much time can they dedicate to a new IT effort?
- Experience of Internal Staff: Does the internal staff have direct, high-level expertise in the implementation of the new IT project that is under consideration?
- Budget Constraints: In most cases, the investment is less when hiring a temporary project management team, when compared to the cost of hiring new full-time employees that have significant professional IT expertise.
- Business Strategy: Many companies do extremely well and gain economies of scale by outsourcing mundane operations or specialized, one-time IT project needs.
Hiring an Expert Project Management Team
The advantages include having enough skilled workers to accomplish the tasks. These It specialists should have a much higher level of expertise and competence than internal workers have for specific IT project needs.
It can be very costly and requires a steep learning curve for internal workers to become sufficiently familiar with new IT implementations. It is best for them to have guidance from outside experts to enable this process. Outside consultants have an objectivity and a clarity of purpose that helps them make IT implementation more successful.
The disadvantages include misunderstandings about the business strategy and objectives, especially if these are not clearly defined in advance of the IT project implementation. Another problem arises with the handling of sensitive and proprietary company information. This information needs to be guarded by strict confidentiality agreements and “need-to-know” access security protocols. It is also best to have an ongoing relationship with the consultants for future help and if problems arise.
When an IT project is organized well, the advantages of working with expert project managers far outweigh any disadvantages as long as there is a clear plan, with clear goals, and proper security measures are in place.
Conclusion
Many internal IT teams do not have either the skill sets or time to manage projects on their own. That is where we come in. TBS can either completely manage a project from budgeting to implementation or manage any portion of a project.
TBS has the expertise needed to manage projects such as:
- MS Office 365 migrations
- Server and workstation upgrades, installations, and re-installations
- Network build-outs
- System integrations
- Conduct a security audit and implement remedies
- Create disaster recovery plans and manage disaster recovery
- Implement cloud technology solutions and much more.
TBS becomes an integrated part of a client company’s culture to achieve the goals that the organization wants to achieve, not the other way around. Contact TBS today to discuss your IT project management goals and receive professional, high-caliber recommendations for successful implementation strategies.
