Often senior IT Leaders  can make terrible judgement in the choice of projects or products or both. In the mix of the global footprint and the outsourced world, these decisions backfire not just implementing them but much after they go live.

Two examples to underscore how this plays out, these are real world examples without naming the client or the vendor for confidentiality reasons.

A large multinational company with global presence in 100 plus countries has a travel card program which is quite smooth and is delivering value and in steady state.  The competitor, beaten by market forces and looking for some quick wins, walks in and offers a signup bonus to switch,  The executive in charge of decision making doesn’t quite understand the complexity to switch worldwide and offers to take the bite.  Then begins the travails of handling the switch that spans IT, every employee that travels globally and uses the card and the administrators of the program not to mention the system switch.  What was thought to be an easy swap turned out to be a year-long disaster with negative ROI to boot.  Making a decision without all the inputs from key constituencies was the issue here.

Another example…The Same client had a need to handle automation of finance payables and was looking for a solution to reduce manual processing with outsourced labor.  Ignoring best of the breed products that could have delivered a quick win the decision maker proposed going in with the same outsourced vendor to buy their solution.  This solution was not production ready nor tested well and this decision cost the company literally thrice the amount that was intended to be saved.

These examples play out regularly at almost all companies that seek to outsource or reduce their IT costs. Adequate due diligence, testing the waters via pilot, having good exit clauses, limiting contractual damage are some things to consider to minimize the damage.

IT Leaders have a duty to let decisions makers know what their key decisions mean for implementation and beyond from ROI perspective. Honest truths are better than the irrational decision that hurts the company’s bottom line, spreads a sense of discontentment with users and becomes a Damocles sword for others.  

Larger IT product decision in outsourced environments are best taken with adequate due diligence rather than rushing in to capitalize on an immediate gain which is as good as buying snake oil. Some of the best decision makers are those that take feedback from every quarter and make an informed decision.  Bring IT to the table before key decisions are made is the key.   My way or highway approach here is a sure shot recipe for disaster.