There is no need to sugarcoat it: managing your IT environment in the status quo sucks. What exactly does that mean? It means you’re doing things the old-fashioned way because it’s “good enough.” It means you’re spending way too much time manually managing something that can be automated. It means you’re so busy you can’t take the time to see what’s working and what’s not. It means working harder not smarter and that means working at a deficit.
There’s a better way. One of our recent podcast episodes features vCom EVP of Revenue Paul Connaker, who is passionate about ensuring no organization settles for the status quo. He believes that every company deserves a better way of managing their technology assets and expenses, otherwise known as IT spend. You can watch here.
What is the status quo in IT?
Paul describes the status quo as it applies to IT and the problems that result across the organization, leading to numerous pain points for individuals in IT, but also finance, procurement, and upper management. This includes difficulties with digital transformation, negotiating enterprise agreements, processing invoices, receiving adequate customer support, and lack of visibility into IT spend and the IT lifecycle. The status quo is a recipe for failure, since organizations lack a single pane of glass and a well-equipped team to manage what they’re spending on IT.
Why does the status quo grab hold and last?
Traditional providers are not well equipped to solve their own problems and lack the incentive to do so if the customer is willing to accept those problems. In particular, the mid-market hasn’t received enough attention in addressing these problems. Paul explains that with IT departments facing more demands than ever before, technology requirements have significantly increased, making it harder to address the status quo.
Status quo means you don’t have the right expertise
In the status quo, the person responsible for designing the solution isn’t always the expert. They could be an office manager tasked with a job they are completely unfamiliar with and learning as they go. Sourcing technology can mean spending lots of time consulting with analyst firms and peers who have gone through the process. As Paul says, vCom challenges this by providing a team of subject matter experts with extensive experience in every field of IT.
Step away from the Spreadsheet…
The most common status quo vCom encounters is a spreadsheet, whether it’s to track orders, assets, invoices, or the 800 numbers set up for customers. Everybody else has a SaaS platform to help them manage what they need, why not IT?
Is There a Better Way to Process Your Invoices?
“I’m incredibly confident that my AT&T invoice is easy to read. It’s accurate every single month, and I’m getting the price point that I had agreed to,” said no one ever. The status quo of getting an invoice from a provider and processing it doesn’t work. Invoices aren’t accurate and can be difficult to comprehend. Paul talks about how it’s possible to get full visibility into normalized invoices that are easy to understand so you can actually track mistakes before it’s too late.
Tools are there to help, not to replace
As Paul says, “We’re here to empower those people to do a better job and be more on top of their job every single day. HR isn’t clamoring to write out paychecks anymore.” Finance folks love the automation associated with payroll. There is no longer a need for an IT person to update their manual spreadsheet. There is a better way.
