A significant part of our practice is working with people to formulate the right questions. Too often, people in the technology business start with a specific-sounding mandate and proceed to incur expenses for the client/employer as if the answers have all been realized when the correct questions have not even been asked.

The most important step in obtaining or deploying technology is to strip down the imaginative to stark words on a page. What is it that you actually hope to accomplish. Receiving or dealing in jargon and buzz phrases inevitably leads to major excess expenses and sometimes creates a career for someone taking care of the technology that was supposed to do all the magic.

So instead of accepting, even from yourself, an ambigous statement such as “we want CRM,” get down to work and write out what exactly “CRM” means to you. What do expect to be physically happening after it is all installed and operating?

Helping people navigate this essential planning stage by bringing to bear our experience and knowledge from desktop software to million dollar custom process software installations, Walking Dolphins reveals unexpected opportunities as well as unforeseenchallenges.

Real needs can always be discovered through dispassionate questioning.

The barrier is that so often the people who are providing the advice are the same ones who will be selling the product or service so that there is little incentive to deliver less than the maximum possible. It is their job to persuade to buy as much as possible and they will use ambiguous language and implied wisdom to ensure you do buy as much as possible.

And most people, including CEOs, are not well equipped to realize what are the right questions when it comes to technology procurement and deployment. Walking Dolphins provides that strength before the first vendor is invited to coffee.

Have a look at our free guide, Technology Management for Business and particularly the section Know Why You Are Buying.