Lessons Learned in Creating a Corporate System

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This article discusses the various strategic, political and cultural factors that were associated with the decision to develop an online employee portal at SmFedCon. The cause and contributing factors that led to the software development project are explored in detail. Focus is placed on SmFedCon’s decision processes to make the initial decision not to develop the employee portal.

Examples are included that show how factors such as personal biases and financial conservatism influenced SmFedCon from realizing the potential of the online employee portal.

ABOUT SMFEDCON AND THE PROBLEM REQUIRING A DECISION

SmFedCon was a small US Federal government contractor that provided Information Technology (IT) services in the areas of strategic planning, project management, and software development. It had approximately 240 employees and 98% of these employees worked onsite at various government locations across 14 states and Washington DC.  It was growing rapidly and was involved with multiple high-level projects. Due to this rapid growth, a decision needed to be made if SmFedCon was going to spend time and resources to create an online employee portal.

HOW WAS THE PROBLEM IDENTIFIED

Within a few months of joining SmFedCon, CIO noticed a pattern where the quality of documentation deliverables was declining due to a lack of a version control system and no central document repository. What broke the camel’s back was an incident where one of the federal clients was about to receive different versions of the same document from the main office, project manager and the project team member. Although this was stopped in time, CIO realized that this as an issue and needed to be addressed. This issue was also confirmed by some of the employees who worked on-site at federal client facilities.

ACTORS AND ROLES

The following table shows the reporting structure, roles, and actors involved in the decision-making process for creating an online employee portal:

Actors	Roles	Reported To
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)	Corporate priorities decision maker	N/A
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)	Corporate Financial Management	CEO
Chief Information Officer (CIO)	Corporate Technology Management US Federal Government Projects Management	CEO

In regards to the online employee portal decision process, (1) the CFO’s role was to determine if new project budget requests made financial sense, (2) the CIO’s role was to provide a 2-page business case document to the CEO and (3) the CEO’s role was to decide.

BACKGROUND

Strategic Factors – Not in the Technology Roadmap

Although the initial decision not to develop the employee portal was overturned due to changing circumstances but at the beginning, it was based on SmFedCon’s technology roadmap. The technology roadmap was written some year back before the company started to see rapid growth and did not take into account potential issues that might occur due to mismanagement and miscommunications.

Political Factors – Power

The CFO and CIO reported to the CEO however the CFO had more power at SmFedCon. CFO could easily influence the CEO in certain decisions. The CFO’s power came from the 20-year friendship with the CEO and as a trusted advisor to the CEO. The CFO was also responsible for IT prior to the CIO joining the company.

Cultural Factors – Small Business Mentality

While costs should be kept under control in all organizations but small businesses are especially sensitive to this. However, this sensitivity can blind small businesses from what is possible. This was the case with SmFedCon. Even though they saw how an online employee portal could help solve some of the issues they had it was just not in the budget to pursue this direction.

SMFEDCON DECISION PROCESSES – The 2-Page Business Case

After the issues were identified, CIO met with the CEO to discuss that an employee portal could be the answer. CEO requested a 2-page business justification document to show if the employee portal could address the current and perhaps future needs.

The 2-page business case linked current issues with quality degradation, loss of productivity and eventually loss of clientele. It also listed the various types of options that were considered to stand up an online employee portal. These options included proprietary software vs. open source, existing application customization vs. software development and associated costs. The document listed the only option that was most feasible for SmFedCon.

The CEO discussed the 2-page business case with the CFO during one late hectic evening. The next day CEO informed CIO that the company had decided not to move ahead with the online employee portal project.

Next week, the CEO was working on a federal solicitation response when the computer died. At that time CEO was the only person who had the latest version of the document. CEO was also collaborating with other writers but they only had previous versions. Although the documents were retrieved CEO realized how the online employee portal with the documentation management system could have saved time and would have been beneficial. The next day SmFedCon won a contract that they were working on and the CEO asked the CIO to go ahead with managing the development of the online employee portal.

The following diagram shows the decision-making process at SmFedCon.

ANALYSIS

In hindsight, there are a number of things that could have been handled better.

As companies grow, they have to realize that what worked in the past when there were only a few employees would not be sufficient in the future. Processes and tools should be in place and scalable to the growing needs of the organizations. In regards to SmFedCon, this was not the case. Although the company was growing rapidly it did not invest in processes and tools that could have helped it become a well-oiled machine. In the case of an online employee portal, it was a necessity not a luxury since a vast majority of the employees were not on corporate locations but they still needed to access the correct version of the documentation and be able to collaborate with other team members.

Framing the Problem

When CIO joined SmFedCon, the problem with documentation management, project management, and team collaboration was not defined. There was no framing of what was going on. Although CIO was were not hired to improve operations but suspected that it might have been one of the underlying Blink moments that the CEO had. CIO suspected this because CIO had worked with the CEO as a consultant and helped one of SmFedCon’s clients improve operations. It would have been advantageous to the company if they had given CIO the opportunity to conduct a thorough study of the company to see what other areas could be improved upon.

Biases – We all had them

In the decision-making process for the online employee portal, there were definitely some biases from all actors. CIO’s bias came from working with small businesses in the past where cost was always a major issue. Additionally, in those organizations, CIO was responsible for recognizing patterns and improving operations and thus tried to do the same with SmFedCon. Due to CIO’s background in technology, CIO believed that most operational issues can be solved through well thought out management and technology systems which were another bias. CIO’s decision not to get buy-in from the CFO prior to giving the 2-page business case and not getting CFO involved in determining the project budget stemmed from an unpleasant experience working with a previous CFO. All of this played into the CIO developing the business case without working with the CFO.

There were some biases from the CFO as well. Since CFO handled IT before CIO joined, it seems like CFO was reluctant in giving up control. As CIO looks back, s/he remembers an incident where the CEO had to have a closed-door meeting with CFO so that CEO would give CIO login credentials for a corporate system. CFO was skeptical about IT projects and was quick to make judgments about them. CFO was also double the age of the CIO and might have not understood/accepted why SmFedCon hired a young CIO at the company only in their 20s. In regards to the online employee portal, all these biases might have played a role in the CFO convincing the CEO that it was not feasible to start this project.

Although the CEO was not quick to make judgments the 20-year-old relationship with the CFO might have played a role in the decision. Additionally, the decision not to be moving ahead on the project might have been exacerbated by that hectic late evening.

Alternatives to Recommended Direction

The 2 pages CIO chose to concentrate on stated what issues SmFedCon was having and how they could be solved through the online employee portal. The document did not have many alternatives to select from. It only listed that SmFedCon can create the online employee portal (1) using open source technologies, (2) the CIO would guide the developers and vendors in the design and (3) CIO would manage its development.

CONCLUSION

Although a decision-making process was followed initially it did not result in the desired outcome. As discussed earlier, while there are many reasons for this however establishing good relationships and getting buy-in would certainly have helped.  Some of the other decision-making processes that could have helped include:

• Nominal Group Technique – This technique could have been helpful in determining the various issues employees were having. Since the online employee portal was the CIO’s idea even though s/he had been with the company only for a few months versus other employees who had been around for a long time. This might have created some resentment towards the idea. The Nominal Group Technique could have helped to make idea generation and problem-solving more collaborative.
• Framing – Proper framing of the issues would have helped too. CIO did not frame the issues correctly and jumped to the solution. It would have been great to just step back, frame each issue individually and then see how issues could be resolved.
• Personality Types – CIO assumed that most people are like him/her. However, if CIO had understood the various personality types and their motivations then his/her recommendations could have appealed more to the CEO and CFO.