Grassroots IT Consolidation
Written by Jaren Green | 17 December 2009
Based on my own observations of corporate insanity, I have this theory that a grassroots IT consolidation is better than a typical enterprise-level chop job.
A grassroots consolidation for IT is defined as a cultural behavior among IT workers within an organization to consolidate data, systems, and processes starting from the bottom up.
The advantages of a grassroots consolidation are:
- Improvement is a program, not a project
- Advantages start within weeks not months or years
- Those who know legacy systems the best are the ones who do the work
- There is less disruption, stress, and backlash (maybe none at all)
- The consolidation effort is less expensive
- The risk of failure is greatly decreased
Most companies have an IT consolidation project underway. But despite five years of popularity on the corporate top 10 list, consolidations have produced savings of less than $50,000 in 12 months for 39% of all companies surveyed by Enterprise Management Associates. The actual ROI was probably negative.
My company cannot afford failure, so where do we start?
Pillars of a Grassroots Success
1. Incent a "Consolidation Culture" - While other change efforts may fail, people are most likely to change if they are guaranteed additional money or benefits. Offer a bonus on every action that reduces multiple processes, data stores, or systems into one. Reward anything that reduces the IT management burden without negative impacts on the business.
2. Advance Roles - No one wants to decrease their job security by consolidating away the only activity that keep them employed. You will never achieve a grassroots consolidation unless your people carry the banner. Plan the role changes in advance. Once A and B are gone, John moves to C. Work with John on the plan and sprinkle in some training to make it work.
3. Fund Small Projects - Big project funding is all about politics. Small project funding is about trust. Department managers need to show they can get their teams moving and executives need to test them out with reasonable, but small budgets. Most grassroots efforts don't need much money.
3. Turn Things Off - This is the promise of every consolidation effort, but it rarely happens. I have turned off systems and closed down programs. These actions feel like failure. Only months before, I was fighting to keep these system going. Well, suck it up! Shutting things down is an act of determination and humility.
4. Report Simple ROI Math - Real accountant-style ROI is difficult to show, even for accountants. Simple ROI looks like this: The company spends $500,000 per year on servers and we have about 100 servers. We shut down 3 last month for a savings of $12,000 per year. There are 2 people on my team. The savings paid for our salary last month and provided $10,000 in profit for the company. Reports like that will build trust with executives, but more importantly, it teaches your team to think like an executive.