so what to do when you need to convince your boss to invest in some expensive technology/hardware. How do you align your vision with his; provided he’s not too tech savvy.. is it that, “if we could purchase it, and develop around it, then we will able to market it” or develop samples prototypes etc. I think it’s tough sometimes, to sell something, which is relatively new. But, so is the fact to come up with new ideas and open up avenues of growth for the company. Then there’s a fine balance one ought to be able maintain that you just cannot be an inventor, the ideas/applications ought to be brilliant which can be delivered and sold within a short period. The competition, the diffusion; the saturation; and especially the lack of information and understanding that the other party posses, can make your ideas that much more harder to sell. At the end you have the firm believe that yes, what I envision is right and eventually, it will grant us the competitive edge over others. As much as the job of a tech person is relishing and exciting, it could be tremendously draining…
I'm certainly no expert on this, but my common sense would suggest that you make an easy-to-understand plan, showing how the new technology can benefit the company. Upper management is always impressed by figures. Give him estimates. Prove that you've done your homework. Would it be 'that' hard? :)
Show him the money. Thats it. Profit potential. Cost saving. Anything which talks about money, makes them take note.
yes indeed common sense would seek potential and ROI etc. However, the risk factor is I think the most brutal thing to fend off, especially, when there may not be any returns over the short period (2-3 months), and that's what becomes challenging for a small tech company to drop thousands of dollars. Skills level as a developer to be able to mature and derive the potential, and be able to deliver what's promised, and collaborating with marketing people, so they understand how, where and what the potential maybe, and their input of course; and eventually bringing everyone on the same page. I think quick demonstrations also ease up tasks, and, you could gain additional momentum, if there're clients showing keen interests in prototypes while the whole process is underway..i guess ..these real life work challenges could never be learnt at college. the politics; the convincing negotiation….love it though
^ Oooo i'm getting goosebumps :p
Corporate world, here I come! ;o)
Software business is not for the fainthearted. There are lots of new ideas out there but implementation is a whole different ball game. Considering the recent economic ups and downs in the I.T sector and buyer’s confidence...you are looking at more challenges as compared to those who took chances in the nineties. The whole cycle of funding, planning, designing, prototyping, marketing and selling will take more than a spur of moment decision. Your boss is looking at 6-10 months just to get a buy in from other investors.
Do you believe in what you are proposing? Do you see the proposed technology to be around after ten years? Do you have enough expertise, team and experience to see yourself at the top spot in the new market? If the answer to these questions is ‘yes’ then you shouldn’t have a problem selling the idea to your boss. Good luck.
This is the emblematic situation in internal consulting – creating that buy-in from top level execs can be a tricky chore. I guess it’s even harder in a small company… but like everyone else has proposed, what you need to do outlaw, is present a strong business case to your execs – I’m guessing it wouldn’t have to be as formal as a presentation and a report, but maybe an email highlighting your ideas and an attachment where you’ve identified the costs and benefits (not necessarily quantitative) would help. My experience has been with tech projects in larger companies where I’d have to arrange anywhere between 5 to 6 preliminary meetings with the process owners, ITS depts. And the VPs who sponsor the projects… usually also involves a formal presentation and a report that everyone can study.
When you say about “competitive edge”, make sure you emphasize the current market situation and your justifications.
Proof-of-concepts usually help… this can be done by looking at what others in your industry or other industries have done and how have they benefited from their investments.
I guess another avenue is to get people at your level on your side first… and then approach the management with a proposal as a group but make sure you keep the upper hand in your group by maintaining your position as the subject matter expert.
Umar and others have some great points. point is what exactly are you trying to accomplish with the new technology or capital investment. Does it make your company a leader, which is considered good, but in a number of cases companies do not want to be the leaders and would rather be early movers and learn from the miostakes of the first mover.
anyways..the point is what does it solve? the end result of it..
seamless integration of data...what does it mean..how would it help teh company operate better, and what is the bottom line impact.
Now ROI of many IT projects is a mixture of science and arts, and sadly many ppl in the IT leadership dont get it.
teh questions to be answered are,
why should I get it
what would it do
what would be the bottom line impact of if.
During my consulting years, I helped build these cases working with the senior IT leadership of companies ranging from Caterpillar and haworth to allstate and sears. the theme was always the same...
and whatever you do, dont burden the mgmt with tech jargon. The comon view is that the more jargon you have, the less substance you have.
The bottom line is generally the money factor, so somewhere in there you need to really show him the money. In addition you need to how it changes whats existing, how it makes his job better, how it improves things.
What is different and what are the associated risks and how you plan to hedge against them. Depending on how high level your boss is will directly relate to how high level this discussion will be.
Plus you need to focus a bit more on whats important to the boss. If he is spending hours everyday fielding calls from clients about a certain problems and you can suggest the new technology as a solution to it you are more likely to be heard.
Figure out what his priorities are, how this fits in and then show him the money.
PS: thats in addition to whats has been said above by others.
thank you folks for your professional input. In most ways for us, the new technology actually means up-gradation, and the next logical step to add to our existing infrastructure. We are already developing with same core technologies, but, until now, none of them really had a communication aspect. In order to fulfill this gap, and to be able to deliver complete and richer user experience in the areas such as web casting, and e-learning based application, we require such an extension. Almost all of our clients are in the mining, and heavy engineering sectors, and so such needs do often arise. However, from our business point of view, our turn around time on most of the projects is normally within couple of months, so by building prototypes and samples, I specifically meant developing them within few days, and be able to add to our libraries. Although, the way things progress in technology sector, it's almost impossible to make an accurate forecast for a longer period, so fayz, only thing I am assured about the next ten years is that there will be much better and faster mediums. I think what you have to look at it is if it serves the purpose well enough from the technological and business perspectives, right-now, then why wait.
It's a small company, so most of the communication is pretty straightforward, and often such things comes up in regular meetings. I think, by competitive edge I am more referring to becoming a service provider as well as working on individual projects. From what I have learnt thus far in web business; certain percent of company's revenues should come from providing monthly services. That's where we have some leverage and room to expand with existing and prospect clients. But, there are still factors associated with costs, maintenance, deliverability which have to justified, and fulfilled, and that's where a lot of convincing took place. Many thanks once again
However small company, especially in small company, you have to show:
Cost: Hardware, software, maintenance, etc = TCO
Benefit: Quantify savings from less labor + profit from more sales + customer touchpoint & better experience by faster problem resolution etc...
This is only example but not that hard, if your idea is really good. Ofcourse if all you're trying to do is get more hardware (like mose tech geeks do at times) the analysis may convince you to forget the whole thing! (which is not a bad thing if the idea is bad!)
Or there's a simple way:
If it is YOUR money will you do it?
PS: This is just my opinions