Our “White Paper” series is all about the business of IT. Topics like password security, IT management, and technology purchases are all covered in our informative series aimed to help small businesses achieve their technology goals.
Modern Information Technology consists of a myriad of hardware, software, subscriptions and services to support an organization’s operation. There are so many products and services that are intended to address specific markets, user count, application software and infrastructure needs that selecting the right ones to meet an organization’s needs is critical.
There are a number of tasks to perform to ensure that an organization is effectively implementing appropriate IT hardware, software and services. Below is the typical process:
- Product Selection
- Product Configuration
- Order Management
- Supplier coordination
- Manufacturer coordination
- Receiving Management
- Inventory Management
- Financial Management
- Return/Warranty Management
Product Selection
Information Technology products, like many other industries, target specific markets or client size in order to provide a cost-effective solution. This being the case, Black Line’s Purchasing and Engineering Managers have to glean through the ocean of options to provide recommendations that fit a client’s situation. As every IT environment is unique, the recommended collection of products is unique and tailored to the client environment.
An IT expert reduces the client’s risk as they have the knowledge and experience to know the difference between products, their strengths and weaknesses and whether they will support the needs of the IT environment they will operate in. Typically, an expert stands behind the recommended product selections further reducing client exposure if a mistake is made throughout the ordering process.
IT Experts usually invests in continual education of its staff, takes advantage of manufacturer educational events and supplier provided resources to provide clients access to the most cutting edge IT products.
Product Configuration
With so many IT products it is not just the selection of the actual product that is important but the way in which the product is configured from the factory. It is very common for the same model /version to be sold with various options, capabilities or add-ons that are necessary for the effective use with the IT solution.
An IT expert takes the time to explore those options with the manufacturer, or supplier, to insure there are not critical components missing. Misconfigured items can lead to unknown charges, rework and project interruption. In addition, concerns such as scalability, quality and maintenance are factored into recommendations utilizing the decades of experience with IT products.
Order Management
Ordering IT products is very similar to other industries although is much more complex because of the numerous options as described in the previous topics. IT Product SKUs can be long, complex and often cryptic. As such, there needs to be active management of each order to insure that what was ordered is actually provided. Especially with some hardware vendors, custom configured machines cannot be returned or they charge very large restocking fees.
In addition, it is common that during the product selection, configuration and quoting process a supplier may have multiple “quotes” associated to a request and therefore a high risk the wrong one is selected when time to place the actual order.
An IT Expert insures that by actively managing an order, staying on top of estimated delivery dates and general supplier/manufacturer coordination ordered IT products arrive as configured and when promised.
Receiving Management
As ordered IT products are received there should be a verification step insuring what was ordered is actually received. As described in the ordering process, IT product ordering can be very complex and even with active order management mistakes do happen. The IT Expert removes this risk by quickly addressing with the supplier/manufacturer to limit the financial, timeline or quality impact to a project.
Typically, the IT Expert knows how to communicate with IT suppliers and manufacturers and has established (and long-term) relationships that provide for efficient and expedited solutions to issues related to products received. Once confirmed, Purchasing Managers coordinate with Account Owners or Project Managers the status of their order and plans for delivery and implementation.
Inventory Management
Once IT products are confirmed through the receiving process and are ready for deployment each product should be inventoried through an Asset Management System. Asset Management Systems provide a central repository for all client hardware, software and subscription purchases. According to industry statistics, over 75% of small and mid-sized businesses do not have a method to track IT assets and are unable to report on warranty, renewals or subscriptions.
A Purchasing Team ensures that when any IT products are purchases through our process that the appropriate information is documented in apprpriate systems. a Purchasing Team also reviews this information on a regular basis to notify client or client managers if there are pending expiration of IT assets that require action. For some clients, this process is done during budgetary discussions prior to the beginning of a budget period to aid in proper planning.
In addition to renewal requests, our Asset Management system is essential for compliance of software licenses. Not being compliant with software licenses can be a costly problem and the methods Black Line uses reduces that risk almost completely. In a recent case, a large Black Line client was audited by Microsoft and based on the information we already had in our Asset Management System was able to provide a 100% compliance rating.
Financial Management
Underlying a well run procurement process are financial transactions that relate to the various IT products purchased. The ordering process can be complex and there are multiple suppliers or manufacturers that have associated financial transactions. an organized Purchasing Team ensures the financial transactions are accurate, matched to the appropriate order and are reflective of what was purchased. There are times that quoted prices will adjust because of timing differences, expired offers and other unknowns when ordering IT related products. A team that is on top of this removes that risk from clients and manages any differences directly with the associated supplier or manufacturer.
Return/Warranty Management
Returning items in any industry has its troubles and the IT industry is no different. When well-organized, the hassle is removed from this process by doing returns on your behalf, issuing credits and absorbing other costs to manage the process.
IT products, especially hardware based ones, often are in need of repair, have components fail or otherwise have a warranty claim. A purchasing team manages this process as they are armed with all the information needed through an Asset Management System and the established relationships with suppliers and manufacturers.