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IT projects during COVID-19 - permanent solutions for duct taped processes

Writer's picture: Tina Marie BaughTina Marie Baugh

Updated: Aug 14, 2023

Many of us have been in leadership and steering committee meetings implementing ways to help our employees, clients and customers through the COVID-19 crisis. We are also developing updated road maps for our organizations to determine which projects will continue, adjust timelines and what new projects have emerged. While we partner with the larger organization, let’s take time to reflect where business processes failed during our COVID-19 response. Many times we implemented work-arounds, applied duct tape if you will, to a situation to get us through this crisis. Now that we understand that this is how business will be run for quite some time, let’s launch projects to replace the duct tape with permanent solutions.


Finding the duct taped situations

Before we can launch projects and prioritize our time, we need to gather all the duct taped situations and quickly scope the permanent solutions. We as IT leaders already know about some of these situations because we helped apply the duct tape. We helped set up:

  • Forwarding desk phones to personal cell phones instead of a virtual phone solution

  • Allowing access to the company network from personal devices

  • Allowing virtual meetings across a variety of platforms - FaceTime, Zoom, Teams

There are others about which we do not know. We need to set up user group interviews, check system logs and see what might be happening that needs to have a permanent process developed given the on-going situation.


Prioritizing the work

Some leaders like to take a “low hanging fruit” approach to prioritizing the work. Other leaders like to prioritize the work based on the number of users impacted. I recommend you analyze the actual business processes, the duct taped solutions, and the business impact if the duct tape fails. Prioritize the work based on the business impact. Let’s explore an example:


Credit card processing - the change

  • Pre-COVID-19 - 95% of your payments with credit cards were completed in person (“card present”) using company computers and devices on the company network.

  • Age of COVID-19 - 95% of your payments with credit cards are completed using a web-based system via home computers when employees work with customers over the telephone.

Process failure point change

  • Pre-COVID-19 - The process hinged on the reliability of the team member’s computer and the company's on-site network including the internet connection. These are built to be highly reliable, through all types of weather and events. On site computer spares are available and if something happened, the team member could work with a peer within a few steps to complete the transaction.

  • Age of COVID-19 - There are many points of failure which may prevent us from collecting payments from customers now. We need to launch a project to address:

  1. Reliability of home computers - Should we ensure everyone taking payments has a company computer? Require certain security software?

  2. Reliability of home network - Uninterruptible power supplies? Home network speed test?

  3. Ability to process when their computer fails - If their computer and/or network goes down, could they process the transaction in progress on their cell phone? Could they warm-transfer the call to someone else?

Review the duct taped processes for their actual business impact and then prioritize the work. Although some processes can be annoying, you may find projects which need to be addressed quickly because they could impact payroll, incoming client calls, or receipt of funds. As a technology leader, communicate to the organization that the work is prioritized based on business impact and show your team’s measurable value today.

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