We partnered with Lighthouse who specializes in such assessments and is instrumental in helping make sure companies maximize the results of their IT investments. Below, please find more information about Lighthouse and words of wisdom from their CEO, Peter Adams.
About Lighthouse
At Lighthouse, we are always consulting with our clients to help them be sure they’re asking all the right questions, and have the right processes and systems in place to attain their goals.
Lighthouse IS, Inc., is a West Coast regional management consulting and technology consulting firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. Specializing in operations, technology, and M&A Support Services, Lighthouse’s primary objective is to assist both private and publicly held firms achieve their overall business objectives. Working closely with a client’s executive team, Lighthouse helps assure that the client’s investment in systems, infrastructure, data and people contribute directly to the growth of the market value of the firm.
For more information: https://lighthouseis.com
Operations & Infrastructure Assessment: A Journey of Discovery
A good Operations & Infrastructure (O&I) assessment is a journey of discovery. It is intended to reveal bottlenecks and opportunities for accelerating the achievement of a firm’s business goals. An O&I assessment is NOT, as some IT specialists may direct it, about technology. Rather, it’s about implementing improvements to the economic value of the business, only some of which may require a dose of technology to execute.
From hundreds of assessments, performed over three decades across a wide-range of industries and business sizes, three common categories of opportunity emerge: 1) productivity bottlenecks, 2) opportunities to enhance business value and 3) critical business vulnerabilities. Once these bottlenecks, opportunities and vulnerabilities are exposed, the firm must ask itself three questions:
- What have been the economic and other costs associated with these bottlenecks over the last 3 to 5 years?
- How are our market position, brand and win-rate being affected by competitors not faced with these bottlenecks and vulnerabilities?
- How much of a discount to the value of our business will a potential buyer want if these bottlenecks and vulnerabilities were discovered in their due diligence?
A Good Assessment Process
Assessments are both art and science. Good assessors are not only highly analytical, they also have a natural, healthy curiosity and good instincts, and are adept at following a thread casually revealed in an answer that just doesn’t seem to make sense or hints at “problematical.”
Approaching an assessment as a cultural anthropologist might, by persistently digging through the layers, permits inquiry that is directed and appropriate to the answers, not the questions. The result is that hidden and latent issues are more quickly revealed. This approach works because a business is not a “thing”, but is rather a culture. The tools used must fit the needs of the culture.
“The gold in an effective business, operations and infrastructure assessment is not found in the glib answers evoked by a rote checklist of questions. It is extracted from the employee and management conversations a good assessment compels. Open ended questions and conversations reveal veins of opportunity that would never have been discovered through simple rote inquiry.”
The firm’s business vision and desired outcomes are revealed through conversations with the executives. Conversations then work their way down, deep into the organization, revealing the reality of the situation on the ground in contrast to executive perceptions. Assessors then return to the executive suite, armed with a fount of insight.
This circuit of conversations facilitates a conclusive, fact-based discussion regarding the options best suited to meet their desired business outcomes. Technology is reviewed only to see how it supports or restricts the achievement of the culture and business needs.
Final Thoughts:
The Operations & Infrastructure assessment process described above is thorough and proven. Periodic re-assessments keep management informed of whether things are improving or getting worse. And getting started doesn’t require a huge investment, expert assistance or even following the complete assessment process described above.
We are happy to have brought some insight from our partner Lighthouse on a comprehensive Operations and Infrastructure assessment. We hope that the information has been informative. Please let us know if you would like an introduction to Lighthouse.