December 21, 2015
Mindsight offers IT Consultation and Services in several areas including, the contact center, collaboration, cloud, and data center infrastructure. Though the specifics of each service will vary by area, a highly certified engineer will inspect and assess the client’s environment, deliver a comprehensive snapshot of the hardware and software involved, and give recommendations on achieving key business objectives.
Oftentimes, we find that our client’s request this service for one of two reasons:
- The client is an IT Director or CIO that is new to the organization and doesn’t know the ins and outs of the environment yet.
- The company or IT department is looking to perform a major upgrade, and they are unsure if their environment can support the new applications.
The Mindsight Consultative Approach
To better understand the value of an assessment, we’ll drill down into these two areas even further, but first, we’ll outline just a few points regarding our methodology and consultative philosophy. We are completely happy to simply sell any requested hardware. Yet, Mindsight’s true value comes from the holistic and comprehensive nature of our Assessment Services.
We prefer to start with the client’s pain points and problems. That is why many of our Assessment Services begin with staff interviews and on-site assessments of the environment. We want to identify problems and goals first, and then discover the most cost-effective avenue to actualize those objectives.
1. A New IT Director or CIO
Starting a new job at any level is daunting, but an IT Director or CIO inherits a particularly precarious situation. New management must be able to step into a role to support the systems in which every other department must depend. To accomplish this, they must understand what is what and what is where on both a hardware and software level.
Certainly, IT directors and CIOs can interview the existing staff, dig through computer files, and physically inspect every server in the data center personally. By the end, they may be able to ascertain a complete picture of the technology involved. The issue is time. Does new management have the time to perform this level of inspection?
Here is where an assessment comes in. At the Strategic Analysis level of our Assessment Services, our senior engineer will inspect every inch of the technology area to draft a comprehensive report. With this information, IT Directors and CIOs can make informed decisions and develop a strategy moving forward.
2. Technology Upgrades
Regardless of the technology area, upgrades are a risky endeavor and almost always involve at least a small amount of downtime. More than any other area of the company, time in the IT department is money. A poorly planned or unsuccessful upgrade could cost a company an exorbitant amount.
To illustrate the complexity involved in a technology upgrade, we have assembled a short list. Here are just a few questions to consider before pulling the trigger:
- Do you have the time to do it yourself?
- Do you have a staff of experts who can provide an unbiased opinion on the matter?
- Are your applications ready to be upgraded to the latest release?
- Do you have the necessary underlying infrastructure for these new applications? How do you know?
- Are any resources being used inefficiently?
- Do you have access to the unbiased research regarding your desired solution?
- Is what you’re going to buy going to sufficient for what you wish to accomplish? How do you know?
- Do you have a testing environment?
- Are you following the best practices?
- Have you researched all your options?
If an IT director or CIO is mistaken about any one of these preliminary questions, it could result in a failed upgrade, a loss of reputation, missed deadlines, and the added investment of troubleshooting the problem.
Through Mindsight’s Technology Roadmaps and Assessments, these concerns can be alleviated. Our staff of unbiased, highly certified experts provides research and experience-based recommendations only after a comprehensive analysis of the environment. Once we identify goals, objectives, and limitations, we can chart a path to a successful upgrade.
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About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT consultancy and services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We’ve always prided ourselves in delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from design and implementation to support and management. Our highly-certified engineers and process-oriented excellence have certainly been key to our success. But what really sets us apart is our straightforward and honest approach to every conversation, whether it is for a local business or global enterprise. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
For Further Reading
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