Why the tagline ‘Business Advantage through Technology’ for Barry J O’Gorman & Associates

There are so many opportunities to do things better, faster, more efficiently, to do different things. Your competition is investing. Your supply chain is smarter. Your customers are smarter and more discerning.

But realising Business Advantage through Technology has not proven trivial. So many IT initiatives have failed to complete, failed to generate genuine business advantage, gobbled up resources and distracted from the business.

We understand that you need to leverage technology more effectively in your business. We are passionate about making sure you pick the right projects and generate sustainable Business Advantage through Technology

How are you looking to use technology to grow your Business

Enhanced customer experiences – providing personalised and seamless customer experiences across multiple channels, thereby increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value
New business models for service delivery/ support. Utilising IoT to collect data from connected devices, improving product offerings, and creating new business models based on usage data and predictive maintenance
Greater reach – developing robust e-commerce platforms to expand market reach and enable 24/7 sales capabilities, tapping into new customer segments and market. Using social media platforms and digital marketing strategies to reach wider audiences, engage with customers, and drive online sales and conversions
Mobile Applications: creating mobile applications to offer convenience to customers, opening new channels for engagement and sales, and staying relevant in a mobile-first world
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Implementing AI and ML for predictive analytics, personalised marketing, customer service chatbots, and operational automation, enhancing efficiency and customer engagement
Greater interaction with customers – greater understanding of customer requirements, real time feedback, leveraging data analytics and business intelligence tools to gain insights into customer behaviour, market trends, and operational efficiencies, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Cloud Computing: Adopting cloud technologies to enhance flexibility, scalability, and innovation, while reducing operational costs and improving time to market for new products and services.
Cybersecurity Solutions: Strengthening cybersecurity measures to protect business and customer data, building trust, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements – crucial to maintaining customer confidence and protecting revenue streams.

How are you looking to technology to contain or reduce costs

Automation of Business Processes: Implementing software solutions to automate routine tasks, such as data entry, invoicing, and customer service inquiries, which reduces labour costs and increases efficiency. Redesigned/ streamlined processes – in sales, manufacturing, distribution, support, general administration, product development. Improved integration and data flows – capture once, eliminate any rekeying
Paperless Processes: Adopting digital document management systems and e-signature solutions to minimise paper usage, reducing costs associated with printing, storage, and document handling. Error reduction.
Risk reduction through cybersecurity solutions (preventing data breaches, cyber-attacks, and other security incidents), compliance management, business continuity planning, data loss prevention, fraud detection and operational risk management – stabilising operations, protecting assets, and maintaining/protecting reputation
R&D efficiencies through use of AI – accelerating discovery processes (E.g. pharma, materials science), enhanced simulation and modelling, optimising design processes, predictive maintenance.
Marketing efficiencies through using AI – targeting and personalisation, content generation, optimising spend across different marketing channels, customer insights/ behaviour prediction, automated customer service through chatbots – where appropriate
Customer Self-Service Portals: Developing online portals where customers can manage their accounts, place orders, and access support, reducing the need for customer service staff and improving customer satisfaction. Automated call handling where appropriate.
Cloud Computing: Shifting from traditional on-premises IT infrastructure to cloud services can reduce costs related to hardware acquisition, maintenance, and energy consumption, while offering scalability and flexibility.
Supply Chain Optimisation: Using IT solutions for supply chain management to improve inventory control, reduce excess stock, optimise delivery routes, and minimise waste.
Data Analytics: Applying data analytics to identify inefficiencies, optimise operations, and make data-driven decisions that can lead to cost savings in various aspects of the business.
Energy-efficient Technologies: Investing in energy-efficient hardware and data centre technologies to lower power consumption and reduce energy bills.
Telecommuting and Remote Work: Leveraging online collaboration tools and virtual desktop infrastructure allows businesses to support remote work, reducing the need for physical office space and associated costs

What technologies are we encountering?

Big Data Analytics: The ability to process and analyse large volumes of data in real-time enables organisations to make more informed decisions, understand customer behaviour, optimise operations, and predict trends
Cloud Computing: The shift to cloud services offers scalable infrastructure and platforms, enabling organisations to be more agile, collaborative, and customer-centric. Cloud computing supports remote work environments, reduces IT overhead, and facilitates the deployment of other digital technologies.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): AI and ML are driving advances in automation, predictive analysis, customer service (through chatbots and personalised experiences), and decision-making by processing vast amounts of data to uncover insights and patterns.
Robotic Process Automation allows organizations to automate routine, repetitive tasks, freeing up human employees to focus on more strategic, creative, or interpersonal tasks – operational efficiency, cost reduction, scalability, improved accuracy, integration with legacy systems, faster processing
Internet of Things (IoT): IoT connects devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items to collect and exchange data, improving efficiency, safety, and decision-making. It is particularly influential in manufacturing, healthcare, smart cities, and agriculture.
Cybersecurity Technologies: As digital transformation expands the digital footprint of businesses, robust cybersecurity measures are crucial to protect data, applications, and networks from breaches, ensuring trust and compliance with regulations.
Network capacity (4G/ 5G): The rollout of 5G networks is accelerating digital transformation by offering faster, more reliable internet access with lower latency, supporting innovations in areas such as IoT, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and telemedicine.
Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Extended Reality (XR) are transformative and rapidly growing in significance, offering immersive experiences that have major implications for training and education, gaming, retail, healthcare, and beyond.

What are the typical investment headings – when assessing Business Advantage through Technology?

Business process analysis and redesign – be this completed by internal personnel or some combination of internal and external personnel
Systems selection and contracting – May include a Request for Information (‘RFI’) process and a Request for Proposal (‘RFP’) process, followed by workshops, evaluations negotiations and legals – again involving some combination of both internal and external resources – depending on complexity, availability of people with appropriate skills and experience.
Hardware Costs: This includes the purchase of physical hardware such as servers, workstations, networking equipment, and other necessary devices.
Software Costs: Costs related to purchasing or licensing software. This can include operating systems, database software, development tools, and application software.
Cloud Services and Infrastructure: If the project involves cloud computing, costs may include subscriptions for cloud services, storage, and computing power.
External Services: Fees paid to external vendors or consultants for services such as process analysis redesign, project management, specialised development, system integration, security assessments, and legal advice.
Internal Staff Costs: Salaries and benefits for internal staff directly involved in the project, including project managers, developers, analysts, testers and support staff.
Training and Development: Costs associated with training staff to use the new IT systems or technologies effectively. This can include both the creation of training materials and the delivery of training sessions.
Support and Maintenance: Ongoing costs for maintaining and supporting the IT systems post-implementation. This includes software updates, hardware maintenance, and support staff.
Data Migration: If the project involves moving data from old systems to new ones, costs can include tools for data migration and the labour for planning, executing, and verifying the migration.
Testing and Quality Assurance: Costs associated with testing the IT systems to ensure they meet the required standards and perform as expected. This can include software and hardware testing tools, testing environments, and labour.
Project Management: Costs related to managing the project, including project management tools, documentation, and administrative support.
Facilities and Utilities: Additional costs for housing IT infrastructure, including data centre costs, power, cooling, and physical security.
Contingency: A budget allocation for unforeseen costs or overruns. A typical contingency budget is a percentage of the total project cost, adjusted based on the project’s risk assessment.
Legal and Compliance: Costs related to ensuring that the project and its components comply with relevant laws, regulations, and standards. This can include compliance audits, legal consultations, and the implementation of required controls.

When companies go wrong, where/why does this happen?

Lack of Clear Objectives: Kicking off a project without clear, measurable goals – risking misalignment with business strategy and needs and missed opportunities for improvement. Gaps in analysis whereby solution does not resolve the targeted issues
Insufficient Planning: Underestimating the complexity of IT dependent projects and the importance of thorough planning can result in delays, cost overruns, and project failure. While one level of planning is required in the business case development and vendor selection, another level is required to manage the risks in executing the project and delivering the benefits.
Poor Stakeholder Engagement: Failing to involve key stakeholders throughout the project can lead to resistance, lack of buy-in, and solutions that do not meet the users’ needs. Stakeholders may have been involved in the project authorisation – but they need to stay in the project through to the benefits’ realisation.
Poor Change Management: Not addressing the human side of change (including training, communication, and support) will frustrate successful adoption of recent technologies.
Ignoring Data Quality and Integrity: Many new initiatives will be dependent on the quality of both historic and future data. These systems will not fix historical issues. But serious data issues will risk successful project delivery and benefits realisation.
Inadequate testing. Failing to plan, manage, resource the required testing. Failing to manage multiple rounds of testing.
Underestimating the Importance of User Training and Support: Without adequate training and ongoing support, users may not fully adopt new systems or may use them inefficiently. Who will deliver the training? What format? How will future recruits be trained? How will training continue to be updated?
Inadequate Risk Management: The project may be undertaken to address a number of existing business risks. The project itself will give rise to a number of risks, including failure to complete and generate the targeted benefits. Proactive risk management is critical to project success. Issues will arise, they need to need to be understood and addressed on a timely basis
Ignoring Scalability and Future Needs: How will the planned systems changes scale with the business (up or down)? Need to be able to respond to significant changes in the business.
Vendor management – the project may include multiple vendors – consultants, software vendors, cloud/ infrastructure partners, systems integrators. Any of these vendors may go through significant change (or may lose key personnel) over the life of a project. This all needs to be managed.
Internal resourcing of project – depending on scope and project methodology there may be significant demands on key personnel within he company (who already carry a full workload). ‘Backfilling’ may or may not be appropriate. Key internal personnel may leave over the course of the project, All of this needs to be managed in the contact of delivering a define scope for a defined budget in a defined time.
Over-reliance on External Consultants: While consultants can provide valuable expertise, relying too heavily on them without building internal capabilities can lead to dependency and knowledge gaps
Not understanding the full investment – cannot demonstrate payback without understanding prior running costs, costs of executing the project and the ongoing post live running costs.

What do we bring – to ensure you generate Business Advantage through Technology?

Expertise and Experience: We can bring specialised industry or technology skills to the project should these be required.
Combined Business and Technology perspectives – ability to bring the business and technology perspectives and understanding together in setting up a technology dependent project to generate Business Advantage
Objective Perspective: We can provide an objective viewpoint, identifying issues and opportunities that internal teams, who may be too close to the project, might overlook
Best Practices: We can introduce best practices (process analysis, project management, testing, training, change management) and the latest trends in technology and management, ensuring the project benefits from proven strategies and innovations.
Clear Objectives – aligned with the business: Working with the stakeholders and management to ensure clarity in the project objectives. Ensuring that the IT project aligns with the broader business strategy
Stakeholder Engagement: Ensuring adequate engagement with all relevant stakeholders through the project
Benefits Management Plan: Nailing down a benefits management plan that outlines how and when the project’s benefits will be delivered. This plan will include specific metrics for measuring success and a timeline for benefit realisation.
Understand the total costs/ investment required – ensuring that in approving a project the stakeholders understand the required investment and commitment of time from relevant internal personnel.
Monitor and Review: Regular monitoring of the project’s progress towards achieving its benefits. This involves tracking performance metrics, conducting reviews at various stages of the project, and adjusting strategies as may be required to address any issues that arise
Resource Allocation: We can source additional resources and specialised skills that may not be available internally if required to accelerate project timelines or address contemporary issues uncovered during the project
Change Management: Our extensive experience in change management enables us help organisations navigate the transitions associated with IT projects, from planning and implementation to user adoption and benefit realisation.
Risk Management: We can help identify potential risks early in the project and propose mitigation strategies, reducing the likelihood of project delays, cost overruns, and failure to meet objectives.
Testing and Training: We can input on tests plan preparation, resourcing and execution. We can also provide resources to assist in delivery of training across the organisation should this be required.