a journey through the workgroup conundrum · soliant consulting, inc. a journey through the...

EMPOWERING BUSINESSES WITH CUSTOM SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

Identify the optimal path for your workgroup processes: off-the-shelf solutions or custom-built solutions.

A Journey Through the Workgroup Conundrum

https://www.soliantconsulting.com

A Journey Through theWorkgroup Conundrum

Soliant Consulting, Inc. A Journey Through the Workgroup Conundrum ii

ContentsDefining a Workgroup ...............................................................................................2

Accurately Identifying Your Workgroup’s Challenge ..........................................................................................2

1. Enterprise Software ...............................................................................................4

Benefits of Enterprise Software......................................................................................................................................4

Drawbacks of Enterprise Software ...............................................................................................................................4

How to Make Enterprise Software Work ................................................................................................................5

2. Off-the-Shelf Solutions ..........................................................................................6

Benefits of Off-the-Shelf Solutions ...............................................................................................................................6

Drawbacks of Off-the-Shelf Solutions ........................................................................................................................7

How to Make Off-the-Shelf Solutions Work .........................................................................................................7

3. Custom Software Development .........................................................................8

Benefits of Custom Solutions ..........................................................................................................................................8

Drawbacks of Custom Solutions ...................................................................................................................................9

How to Make Custom Solutions Work .....................................................................................................................9

Option One: Build Your Own Custom Solution Internally ....................................................................................................... 10

Next Steps ................................................................................................................................................................................11

Option Two: Partner with a Custom Software Development Team ..................................................................................11


Soliant Consulting, Inc. A Journey Through the Workgroup Conundrum 1

Preface

M ost businesses, in their early days, start with basic tools and technology – such as a spreadsheet tool like Excel – to manage their internal data and processes. And in the early days, it’s enough.

However, as a company grows, so do its workflows and teams. Businesses quickly outgrow their trusted spreadsheets, which at some point become so massive that they crash at least once a week. They’re forced to deal with version issues as different team members make changes to one document without notifying one another. They find themselves “hacking” their tools just to make them work for their needs.

A major contributor to this problem is that often as a company grows, so do the silos within them. Teams form and are split up by responsibilities and goals. They often find themselves facing differing organizational priorities and external challenges. As a result, the technology that works well for one group often utterly fails to serve another.

We call this problem “the workgroup conundrum.” In this white paper, we outline the options available to businesses and the teams who power them to solve their unique challenges with appropriate technology.



Defining a Workgroup

A “workgroup” defines a group of colleagues working on a related set of business problems and opportunities. For example, you can classify the 20-person recruiting team of an HR department or the 40-member inside sales team

within a large organization as workgroups. Each collection of professionals has a unique challenge or goal within a larger department or business system. These organizational initiatives may be temporary or permanent.

Distinct business problems within these workgroups drive a need for specific systems, applications, and data maintenance. And sometimes the systems your business have in place fall short of the mark. This is what we call the “workgroup conundrum.”

So what do you do next?

Accurately Identifying Your Workgroup’s ChallengeFor many companies, these problems revolve around data sharing, analysis, maintenance, and storage. They start off tracking

many of their important data points in a common and simple tool, such as a spreadsheet. They end up sharing important files via email, creating version issues. These workgroups then spend valuable time asking one another which document holds the most recent and correct information.

As a result, the workgroups find themselves needing real-time sharing capabilities for key data, such as customer records, patient records, orders, and more. Generic office suite documents don’t satisfy their needs. Even popular “one step up” business application suites like Google Apps or Office 365 lack data integrity maintenance and validation. They don’t meet the needs of database-driven workgroups and their highly-customized business processes and workflows. These business systems

aren’t sustainable solutions, and they definitely aren’t scalable.

Quite simply, these workgroups must outgrow ordinary desktop office tools in order to move to the next level.

Tackling your own workgroup conundrum won’t be a simple task. To truly determine what workflows your workgroup needs to improve first, all contributing members need to collaborate on a prioritized list of their most important needs – what do

Before you can jump into determining a direction for your workgroup solution, you first need to make sure you have a handle on your specific business problem.



Defining a Workgroup

your current systems do that you love? Where do you run into roadblocks? What functionality and capabilities do you wish they had?

From there, you can take one of three paths to acquire the technology (and processes) you need: implement an enterprise solution, purchase a prepackaged and canned application, or a build a custom solution.



1. Enterprise Software

Many companies think they understand what they need based on a loose consensus definition on their workgroup challenge. As a result, they Google for a one-size-fits-all solution online. However, workgroup problems do not

necessarily equal enterprise problems. Don’t make the mistake of confusing the two and going down the enterprise software research rabbit hole.

Benefits of Enterprise SoftwareThere’s a reason some enterprise systems are used by companies all over the world. They are good at what they do. The technology can bridge employees all over the world in one strong system.

Enterprise solutions typically have a large following and therefore an active forum. If the software maintains thousands of users, you can bet there’s a community dedicated to sharing tips and tricks on using it.

It also means an army of available developers maintain the software, keeping everything seamless and streamlined below the surface. It probably has a bug maintenance team. And, if it’s worth its salt, it’s cloud-based. That means your team can receive and implement upgrades and updates anytime you’d like. You’ll always have the latest version of the software.

Drawbacks of Enterprise Software“Enterprise solutions” often refer to applications affecting most or all team members in a large organization of many hundreds or thousands of people. These types of software include a time-tracking application for all 6,000 employees across 25 physical locations for a business or a company-intranet for communications and document storage. By definition, enterprise software doesn’t “flex” to the shape of individual workgroups. Enterprise software has an overarching goal for every employee in the company, and the specific needs of the workgroup easily get lost.

Thanks to big marketing budgets, big-name enterprise systems show up top-ranked in search results and draw the eye with impressive stats and demos. However, your initial reason for your search can easily get lost in its general functionality. The software puts too much functionality at the fingertips of the workgroup, cluttering workspaces and workflows.

In addition, purchasing a licensing and implementation package is often quite an investment for a company. Businesses often seek to replace smaller, separate systems with larger, centralized ones in an effort to connect teams and their data. However, when this is done without regard for the needs of individual workgroups, they break successful and efficient established workflows and processes. They often fail to obtain the promised return on investment claimed by the enterprise software provider as a result.



1. Enterprise Software

How to Make Enterprise Software WorkIf your company decides that enterprise software is your next best step, make sure your deployment actually solves the unique business problem of your workgroups. In fact, if you implement the solution company-wide, make sure to gain buy-in from the majority of your workgroups. Guarantee the software will be used to its best ability, not just by your workgroup, but by as many others as possible. Enterprise software is often expensive, and you want to make sure you make a return on investment. Don’t sell your workgroup’s needs short!



Of course, no workgroup is 100% unique. Even if it feels like no other company shares your idiomatic pain points and challenges, someone else out there likely shares at least 80% of them. That means there’s a market for at least a

portion of your needs, and there’s most likely a commercial off-the-shelf-solution that addresses these common needs, such as the many e-mail marketing solutions out there. Many organizations attempt to address their workgroup challenges by buying “canned” solutions built for specific department and/or workgroup challenges and making them work for their specific needs.

Benefits of Off-the-Shelf SolutionsIn theory, deploying off-the-shelf software ensures low up-front costs and a fast deployment. As off-the-shelf software gets companies closer to their workgroup problems than enterprise software, there’s still a level of standardization applicable across a larger group of users. This drives down the price for each company and user.

By this logic, off-the-shelf solution providers have also undergone enough deployments to anticipate, plan for, and work around typical roadblocks during launch. Workgroups therefore benefit from getting off the ground quickly while still getting a handful, if not a majority, of their specific needs met.

Much like an enterprise solution, canned solution providers have a wealth of experience and sophistication in building their product. They know what works and what doesn’t. As a user, you’d benefit from this knowledge. Even better, unlike enterprise solutions, this experience is related specifically to at least a handful of your workgroup problems.

As technology continues to evolve to meet more business needs and weave more deeply into businesses, they often offer more integration services as well. This is where you can make your move to make small tweaks and enhancements to the canned solution by connecting it to other technology in your business.

Off-the-shelf solutions are smaller-scale than enterprise solutions, and the resources to support them are as well, but they’re often still there. You will have someone to call when you have a question or need to report a bug. Your team can suggest changes and enhancements and trust that a proficient developer within the vendor’s company will at least consider implementing them. Your workgroup may even get lucky enough to connect with a small community of users to learn how to leverage the solution further and adapt it to more of your workgroup needs.

2. Off-the-Shelf Solutions



2. Challenge-Targeted Off-The-Shelf Solutions

Drawbacks of Off-the-Shelf SolutionsNo matter how good a canned solution is, it is still canned. It’s still built for the many, not for the one. In most cases, it won’t get your workgroup to 100%. For some companies, there’s a threshold of needs they want to meet, but for others, it doesn’t make sense to invest in technology that doesn’t completely address the needs at hand, leaving them with an awkward hybrid of interfaces and double-data-entry dilemmas.

Workgroups who choose an off-the-shelf solution end up attempting to fit their specific, often unique business processes into the confines of a packaged solution. And a square peg rarely fits in a round hole. You could end up having to reinvent how you work, communicate, and drive results just because of your chosen technology. For most, it’s much easier to enhance these processes with a better solution than strip them down and build them back up for a sub-par one.

Much like an enterprise solution, a canned one may contain many features a specific customer doesn’t need. This clutters up the workflows and adds noise to otherwise efficient processes. Your team can get distracted with bells and whistles they don’t actually need while shortchanging your unique workgroup improvement opportunities. Worse still, adoption of the off-the-shelf solution may suffer as your work processes are encumbered by less-than-ideal requirements for entering data, fulfilling orders, responding to inquiries, etc.

Don’t forget about business competitors. They could buy the exact same solution. If you end up doing everything just like them, you lose differentiation. It’s only a limited time before your customers pick up on this as well.

How to Make Off-the-Shelf Solutions WorkIf you decide to move forward with a canned solution, the most important factor in your decision should be if it addresses your workgroup challenges or not. If it doesn’t fix the problems and enhance your team’s effort and productivity, it’s a bad investment.

Some workgroups have an advantage here. For example, off-the-shelf software works best for mature, standardized processes such as accounting and payroll, especially if these systems require a low level of integration with other, more customized systems. This strategy can deliver vastly deeper functionality for a fraction of the cost of a custom solution.

If considering an off-the-shelf solution, take care to investigate reviews of the solution and the organization offering the solution. In this fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment, new solutions crop up on the market all the time. Sometimes the solution gets built and delivered before there is a support infrastructure in place. Some solution providers never get to that level of sophistication, so you might still have to go it on your own. Ask detailed questions of the salesperson and be sure the organization’s responsiveness is satisfactory in terms of detail and speed.

Off-the-shelf solutions can provide more targeted functionality than enterprise level, but they should still address the unique challenges your workgroup faces before you decide to adopt the technology.

Workgroups who choose an off-the-shelf solution end up attempting to fit their specific, often unique business processes into the confines of a packaged solution...a square peg rarely fits in a round hole.

2. Off-the-Shelf Solutions



3. Custom Software Development

There’s no way around it. To adopt software that truly meets all the unique needs of your workgroup, you have to launch a completely custom solution. Every detail of the technology must be tailored to your existing challenges (and potential future

ones!), your processes, and how and where your team works. A custom solution has a much better opportunity to fit in with your overarching business practices and protect your already successful workgroup methods.

Benefits of Custom SolutionsCustom-built software, by definition, is uniquely tailored to the precise needs of a specific workgroup. It eliminates extraneous features cluttering up user screens and ensures every invested dollar is put toward useful and relevant functionality. Workgroups end up with a system tailored to their exact and specific business needs and processes.

Custom solutions are also typically more scalable and are therefore a better long-term investment for workgroups and their businesses. As your businesses’ growth ebbs and flows, you can add and remove users, easily adjust bandwidth, add new features, enhance existing functionality, and retire features that don’t make sense any longer. You can keep your application fit and trim, focused on your workgroup’s needs and your workgroup’s needs only.

Custom solutions may be a big investment up front (a challenge we jump into a bit later in this white paper), over time, but they often turn out to be a manageable budget line item. Instead of having to constantly renew licenses and buy additional ones as the workgroup or business grows, you can build a solution once and add users as needed. When considering what might seem like a significant up-front cost, also consider the amount of time a well-designed solution saves internal resources on a regular basis. While resolving specific workgroup challenges, you could end up saving team members hours of work each week, perhaps automating entire tasks and freeing your team members up to focus on this most critical and thought-intensive areas of their work – the skills you actually hired them for. This adds up to quite an increase in productivity over a year, saving the company money. Also, if a custom solution helps your business grow, it’s probably worth its cost several times over in the long run.

Then there’s the matter of security. While major technology firms take security seriously, there’s still the threat of a hack that puts all of their customers at risk. A custom-built solution makes you less of a target for hackers and also forces workgroups and their IT functions to more closely monitor the flow of information in and out as well as the potential weaknesses in the technology.

Custom solutions are also typically more scalable and are therefore a better long-term investment for workgroups and their businesses.



3. Custom-Sofware Development

Drawbacks of Custom SolutionsThe biggest perceived disadvantage of custom solutions is cost. They take longer to develop, there’s more back-and-forth discussion involved, and there are often lengthy research and testing phases. All of that at an hourly rate often scares workgroups off. Budget is a major concern, and they’ve got to convince seniority a significant budgetary undertaking is worth the investment.

Time is also a major factor. Even if you get the estimated development cost approved, teams are faced with a six to twelve-month delivery date a delivery date as long as six to twelve months, though thoughtfully phasing solution rollout can manage this potential drawback. The discovery and consulting phase of a custom software project can take months in itself. Development may not even begin for months, and it will be months after that before you see a version of the software. That’s a long time to wait when you probably need something as soon as possible. When off-the-shelf software can be delivered in weeks, if not days, it’s difficult to hold out for something bespoke and tailored to workgroup needs. If you need a solution, you probably need it now, not a year from now.

There’s also the risk of inexperience. Many developers – in-house and externally contracted – get a bad reputation of talking a big game and under-delivering in a very disappointing way. If you decide to develop the solution internally (more on this debate later in this white paper), you gamble on your own team’s capabilities – can they build something completely new in the best possible way? If you go to an outside team with more advanced skills, how can you know they can deliver on their promises? What if they hand off a weak solution? Or, what if they disappear and keep asking for more time and money, leaving you in the dark with lighter pockets?

How to Make Custom Solutions WorkCustom software makes the most sense for unique, business-specific workflows that don’t fall into the mainstream categories of off-the-shelf software. Or, if a standardized process, such as CRM or inventory, require a complex level of integration with additional systems, custom solutions may be a good move.

When determining if a custom solution is best for your workgroup or business, we recommend you sit down not just with senior leaders of the workgroup in question but also with leaders of the business from whom you need buy-in and support. Discuss all of your needs, risks, and opportunities, along with the enterprise and off-the-shelf options you’ve researched. Then start reviewing the level of need you have and how long you can wait for implementation of a suitable solution. Finally, consider your budget and the best direction to take for development, which brings us to our last point.

The struggle isn’t over yet. How would you develop this custom solution?



The Buy vs. Build Debate

Of course, the fun isn’t over if you decide you want a custom solution. Now you have to decide – do you build it yourself with internal developers and resources, or do you seek out a trusted development partner for the job?

Option One: Build Your Own Custom Solution Internally

First we recommend looking inward:

• Can your internal team handle the work?

• Do they have the skills and experiences necessary to building a custom solution?

• They might know your workgroup challenges better than an outside firm, but do they know how to solve them with their current technology expertise? Or, will there be some painful on-the-job learning that could go terribly wrong?

• Does your internal team have a track record of delivering successfully adopted workgroup challenges? Do they have on-staff business analysts experienced in translating user group needs and requirements into specifications for developers to follow?

Don’t forget about the maintenance part of the equation, either. Not only are significant resources needed for the initial development step, but also for solution management, maintenance, and enhancements down the road. Carefully consider if your team can handle the burden of that responsibility. These projects often take more time than teams realize when using internal resources, and it will take time away from all other responsibilities currently on everyone’s plates.

You should feel comfortable with your decision to build a custom solution. Whether you do it internally or not, get all of your doubts and insecurities about the process off the table before you even get started.

The biggest advantage of hiring a firm specializing in custom solution development



The Buy vs. Build Debate

Option Two: Partner with a Custom Software Development Team

is experience. Those companies have completed projects like these before. They know where things get stuck, how to expedite processes, how to test the solution, and how to identify red flags. Of course, the technology experience is crucial as well. Successful firms have a deep bench of proficient developers who understand the platforms and frameworks you’ll need and have deep experience in working within them.

The biggest hurdle with an outside firm is often the cost. Development firms often charge per hour and can’t tie down the exact number of hours they need. Instead, they give you a range of hours, and some companies experience sticker shock. At this point, you’ve got to consider your budget – can you really get what you need for what you have to spend? This is a good time to reach out to custom software consulting and development firms and get a solid understanding of the investment you’d need to make. These firms can also help you better define what you can get if your budget is constrained so you can better evaluate the “apples and oranges” of pre-built versus custom solutions. Set yourself up to either make or save money or gain a competitive advantage with your new solution at some point down the road.

If you decide to move forward with an outside development company, thoroughly vet the firm with whom you decide to move forward. How much experience do they have overall? Do they have experience in your industry or with your workgroup challenges and opportunities? Do they have references to share? Ask these references if they deliver on-time and on-budget. What kind of a relationship do they have with former clients? Good firms often work with clients for years at a time, building and maintaining one or two solutions and then enhancing them over time. These firms serve as partners in business, rather than just a development vendor. That’s the best way to go for your business.

Next StepsWhen seeking ways to solve your workgroup conundrum, take great care to identify the best path forward for your technology. Enterprise solutions and off-the-shelf software can solve many of your common immediate problems and may appear to be a more cost-effective option in the short term. However, if you’re looking for a highly-specialized solution to directly address your unique pain points, consider a custom-built solution.

Whatever you choose, think long-term for your technology strategy. What makes it easier for your business to scale during times of growth and pull back during leaner times? Will your choice take you where you need to go? Invest in a solution you can rely on for years to come and adjust to your changing business climate.


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a journey through the workgroup conundrum · soliant consulting, inc. a journey through the...

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