The primary service offering of The Spitfire Group has always been to provide companies with a strategic roadmap for their technology that is aligned to the business strategy. In technical terms this is called Enterprise Architecture, but that buzzword is a buzzkill.
The roadmap really starts with the business strategy. Why is this useful? Well it turns out that as companies grow and mature they tend to develop a bunch of point solutions to every day problems that are often repetitive, costly and are often not aligned with the larger picture of the organization. Down the line this results in increasing silos in the organization and a divergence from the overall corporate vision. When the technology function is not viewed as strategically as, oh say corporate finance, then the operational technology solutions veer off of the corporate runway.
A strategically relevant roadmap for the technology function delivers the right functionality for the business, faster, at a lower cost, and the solutions last much longer (application lifecycle is extended). Customers, suppliers, and employees are happier and more productive and they are working in a mkore aligned manner towards delviering on the mission of the organization. Whats not to love about that?
Monday, February 7, 2011
Thursday, September 2, 2010
How to Get a Quick Tech Project Done Cheap
People sitting on the bench. It's no good. Sometimes it happens when a contract is signed, people are assigned to the project, and for one reason or another the project is delayed. It happens. You can think of it like an empty seat on an airplane, once the plane flys you can never sell that opportunity again. A consulting company, like an airline, is willing to sell that hour at cost.
Spitfire came up with a plan to utilize benched resources by offering short-term opportunities to help you. Here's how it works: While our consultants are waiting for projects to start, they can work on your short-term project (usually a couple of weeks) at a substantially discounted rate. You already know Spitfire has some of the most talented staff in the country. To get them at a reduced rate is a great opportunity to improve your IT.
To see consultants who are available for short-term assignments, go to our Facebook page (and "like" it). You will find our available resources in the "Cool Stuff" tab (Also note: Spitfire built the app that interfaces with social media platforms).
Spitfire came up with a plan to utilize benched resources by offering short-term opportunities to help you. Here's how it works: While our consultants are waiting for projects to start, they can work on your short-term project (usually a couple of weeks) at a substantially discounted rate. You already know Spitfire has some of the most talented staff in the country. To get them at a reduced rate is a great opportunity to improve your IT.
To see consultants who are available for short-term assignments, go to our Facebook page (and "like" it). You will find our available resources in the "Cool Stuff" tab (Also note: Spitfire built the app that interfaces with social media platforms).
Monday, July 19, 2010
Spitfire & Spirits
At The Spitfire Group, we normally specialize in providing our clients with comprehensive technology solutions. But on Thursday July 22 Spitfire CEO Mark Richtermeyer will focus on serving cocktails for a good cause. Spitfire and Spirits will take place from 5-8 pm at the Denver Press Club and a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit KidsTek. KidsTek is a local nonprofit organization that provides today’s youth with the computer and life skills they will need for long-term academic and career success. KidsTek works with K-12 students in underserved communities to provide the keys to successful technology education. The hands-on technology education that KidsTek provides is helping to inspire future generations of innovators in the IT industry.
We at Spitfire know that technology and technology education is the driver of innovation. Join us for a drink Thursday night from 5-8 pm to see what The Spitfire Group can do for your company while supporting future generations of technology solution experts!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Putting Trust to Work
One of the key reasons that Spitfire has been able to attract and build a strong team of talent is our underlying philosophy of treating people as adults. We basically lay out an expectation and expect our people to meet or exceed it. We don't micro-manage, we dont require specific times in the office, in fact we encourage them to work wherever they are most productive. We recognize that hours spent on a congested highway are hours that could be spent getting valuable work done. Our people are empowered to make key decisions for our company, and know that management will back them up.
We put a framework in place that governs how we operate and how we track metrics and productivity, and of course stay close enough to the customer to ensure that we are providing excellent customer service. But, we are really good about trusting our employees to make the right decision. I think that this trust is what makes the difference between a good place to work and a difficult one. I heard it again yesterday from a client that was enjoying his new job, that he is getting a lot done because his CEO trusted what he was doing, and trusted him to make good decisions. His job satisfaction was through the roof!
I must admit, as a CEO sometimes its hard to be so trusting. Especially when people are working remotely, and you don't necessarily know where they are or specifically what they are doing. Last week I needed an answer to a quick question and was unable to reach a key employee quickly (BTW a key component of this is a robust capability to communicate rapidly-we use IM, Cell phones, Text messaging and e-mail for different things), my first instinct was to question what was he doing, found out later he was sequestered in a client data center solving some mission critical issues for them. I found out when the client raved about how wonderful his work was that my first instinct to question was clearly incorrect. The employee reached me shortly thereafter and I got my question answered.
It also takes a robust interview process to ensure that prospective employees are conciencious and trustworthy. We ask a lot of questions that indicate to us if a person has great pride in their work, and if their work ethic supports a service oriented business.
I think thats why people enjoy working at Spitfire. In many respects they are free to craft their own future with their good decisions and a management structure that supports them.
We put a framework in place that governs how we operate and how we track metrics and productivity, and of course stay close enough to the customer to ensure that we are providing excellent customer service. But, we are really good about trusting our employees to make the right decision. I think that this trust is what makes the difference between a good place to work and a difficult one. I heard it again yesterday from a client that was enjoying his new job, that he is getting a lot done because his CEO trusted what he was doing, and trusted him to make good decisions. His job satisfaction was through the roof!
I must admit, as a CEO sometimes its hard to be so trusting. Especially when people are working remotely, and you don't necessarily know where they are or specifically what they are doing. Last week I needed an answer to a quick question and was unable to reach a key employee quickly (BTW a key component of this is a robust capability to communicate rapidly-we use IM, Cell phones, Text messaging and e-mail for different things), my first instinct was to question what was he doing, found out later he was sequestered in a client data center solving some mission critical issues for them. I found out when the client raved about how wonderful his work was that my first instinct to question was clearly incorrect. The employee reached me shortly thereafter and I got my question answered.
It also takes a robust interview process to ensure that prospective employees are conciencious and trustworthy. We ask a lot of questions that indicate to us if a person has great pride in their work, and if their work ethic supports a service oriented business.
I think thats why people enjoy working at Spitfire. In many respects they are free to craft their own future with their good decisions and a management structure that supports them.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
How a small biz can get a big CIO (with a small budget)
In the new economy, it is critical for businesses of every size to prepare for growth and to maximize efficiencies. This always sounds easier than it is. A good way to approach this challenge is to think in terms of outsourcing – not just IT, but outsourcing the entire CIO function.
Our company recently completed an engagement that illustrates how this concept works – actually, how it works extremely well.
We got started by performing a quick audit of the client's overall technology infrastructure -- touching everything from desktop support to enterprise systems, including line of business applications. We basically served as a senior level CIO in order to assess their use of technology, the state of their systems, look at their business processes and then provide a roadmap for the upgrades, efforts and costs the client will need to plan for the next 3-5 years.
In this engagement we are providing the services of what an experienced technology team would bring to a large company. The senior business perspective, business analysts, enterprise architects – the whole enchilada.
This type of engagement provides more value than anyone could have imagined. The client got senior talent and intelligence without hiring a big-ticket, full-time CIO (which they couldn’t afford anyway). Once the roadmap is in place our team provided part-time help as necessary to ensure that the recommended initiatives were accomplished properly.
At the conclusion of this project, the company saved around $15,000 in maintenance costs by simply creating a more uniform technology infrastructure, but more importantly they:
· massively reduced the risk of a business critical system outage
· improved their revenues by creating a better experience for their customers in the form of a client portal (which allowed their customers more access to key performance information, allowing our customer to look so good that their customer hired them for a multi-million dollar new project)
· saved thousands of man-hours on managing paper based processes
· Improved their Internet up-time from 2-3 outages per month to no outages at all
Businesses that use technology are more profitable, more efficient, and grow faster. And businesses that embrace new ways of thinking – such as outsourcing the CIO function – are the ones that will emerge bigger and better in the new economy.
About me: Mark Richtermeyer is the CEO of The Spitfire Group. Providing strategic business and technical services to companies that want to use technology to grow and become more profitable. Feel free to contact me at 303.485.1878, or mark@spitfiregroup.com
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Government Run Healthcare
As a small business, we pay very close attention to the costs of insurance and healthcare costs that we provide for our employees. In the past few days I've heard the President mention that his government sponsored programs will keep private insurance companies honest. I ask who will keep the government honest? At least on an open market I am free to fire my insurance company and select another-I dont suppose I get thqt option with the government.
The other thing I heard him say was that a government program will not effect private programs, that they would not have an unfair advantage in the marketplace. And I think this is truly an intellectually dishonest statement. How can the rule maker not have an unfair advantage? Legislators place so many rules on the private companies that clearly will not apply to them-these legislators certainly have no idea the financial impact in the marketplace of the foolish requirements they create.
Based on recent legislation here in Colorado, our company is facing what we understand to be the highest rate increase our agent has ever seen in a year-almost a 70% increase in cost that will be shared by the company and employees. Unbelievable!
Mark
The other thing I heard him say was that a government program will not effect private programs, that they would not have an unfair advantage in the marketplace. And I think this is truly an intellectually dishonest statement. How can the rule maker not have an unfair advantage? Legislators place so many rules on the private companies that clearly will not apply to them-these legislators certainly have no idea the financial impact in the marketplace of the foolish requirements they create.
Based on recent legislation here in Colorado, our company is facing what we understand to be the highest rate increase our agent has ever seen in a year-almost a 70% increase in cost that will be shared by the company and employees. Unbelievable!
Mark
Workflow Benefits
I've recently witnessed numerous cases of businesses that are lacking processes for their core business deliverables. We've been told that processes run the business and people run the processes, but I personally believe that people play a larger role in the business than just running processes.
Nevertheless it is difficult to provide consistent quality and scale the business if good processes are not in place. The companion to a good porcess is a process tool. I was asked yesterday "how do you keep people from backsliding on new processes that you set up?", and the answer is simply to institute tools to track progress and make the new porcess a part of the job. Once a tool is in place and funtioning porperly it is awfully ahrd to move back to the old way of doing things. Sometimes we refer about this as adoption, and work very hard to get buy-in from the various users of the process to ensure that the tool is adopted fully. I argue that once this has happened it is much harder to backslide to an old way of doing things, and if the tool is configured well, it can identify a lack of adoption, or exceptions to the process-which in turn become management tasks.
Mark
Nevertheless it is difficult to provide consistent quality and scale the business if good processes are not in place. The companion to a good porcess is a process tool. I was asked yesterday "how do you keep people from backsliding on new processes that you set up?", and the answer is simply to institute tools to track progress and make the new porcess a part of the job. Once a tool is in place and funtioning porperly it is awfully ahrd to move back to the old way of doing things. Sometimes we refer about this as adoption, and work very hard to get buy-in from the various users of the process to ensure that the tool is adopted fully. I argue that once this has happened it is much harder to backslide to an old way of doing things, and if the tool is configured well, it can identify a lack of adoption, or exceptions to the process-which in turn become management tasks.
Mark
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