IT’s primary objective in a project is to implement a system and receive client signoff based on an agreed set of requirements. After hyper care, any issues: call the Helpdesk.

One project comes to mind where I thought we were done and after looking back, there was still much to do. I was CIO of a telecom company, and an early area of concern was the efficient and accurate service provisioning of new customers.  There were no communicated milestones other than provisioning times were far too long and we needed to increase capacity. Our initial baseline measurements varied, but it took approximately 20 – 30 minutes to compete 100+ on-site provisions daily.  The new requirements came about when a partner requested provisioning times of 5 minutes or less. Fast forward a few months and several upgrades, with the addition of internal monitors, we consistently completed 90-second provisions and were able to reach 1,000 daily installations when demand required.

We documented our progress and shared a few case studies.  We were done!

At this stage, we were able to place an order, schedule an install and accurately provision with full integration and monitoring. Everything worked as planned with operations, partners, and customers all satisfied.

But what about the downstream impacts?  We could provision 1,000 customers per day, but could Accounting handle the increased volume of Sales Orders and Invoices?  If they couldn’t, then we would be unable to recognize revenue or collect cash in a timely fashion.  Changing Accounting’s processes and systems would be a whole new project, but we didn’t even know if it was required.

I’ve since learned the final milestone isn’t just a deployment, but the overall performance of various business metrics, such as the impact these projects have on Daily Sales Outstanding (i.e. a cash collection metric).  It also caused me to look at the full picture before starting a project to make sure that there were no unintended upstream or downstream consequences to the business.

At Revtelligence, we partner with your business to assist in understanding these downstream and upstream impacts, so an informed decision can be made on timing and order of projects.