The up selling of a converged network plan starts with small conversations between the CIO, CFO and CEO. The network architect is now in a supportive role to the CIO. By engaging accounting early on in the budget and requirements gathering processes, you in fact started to up sell. During the business requirements phase the CEO and BoD should be briefed on the
architecture review project and obtain their input. You are looking for business change indicators such as a merger and acquisition growth strategy, site expansion or contraction. Is the industry undergoing any fundamental shifts? How is workflow changing? Is off shoring taking place? Are customers requiring different forms and methods of communicating with the corporation? Will the staff increase or decrease, or be more mobile? Is tele-working acceptable, encouraged or tolerated? In short, up-selling starts at the very beginning of an architecture review project. If you did this first phase well, then obtaining funding should be straightforward.

Invariably, a large presentation to the CEO and BoD will take place. The design of this meeting is unique to the culture of the company. But by and large the CIO is presenting and knows that he/she has the support of the CFO at that point in time. In fact the CFO should be fully briefed and on board before the CIO enters the boardroom. Either the CFO or the CIO or both should
have also briefed the CEO. In short, expectation setting is a key tactic to successfully obtaining funding authorization. If consultants were used in the architecture development project they should attend as well, to support the CIO and provide industry perspective. The main goal of this meeting is to gain consensus and funding. So what is in the presentation? A three part
presentation usually works well: Part 1: The existing network does not support the business goals; Part 2: Business benefits of a converged network; Part 3: Financials and next steps.

Part 1: The Existing Networks Does not Support The Business

Up selling a plan to obtain funding has to include why the existing network will not meet corporate business requirements and goals. In short, you have to explain why the network is broken, inefficient or will not scale to support key corporate revenue and profit initiatives. Having hard data from network monitoring is very powerful to support your assertions. This discussion is followed by a re-statement of business strategy and requirements, which are mapped into network requirements. A wish list of what is needed from the enterprise network to support corporate initiatives is the best way to communicate the network´s value.

Part 2: Business Benefits of A Converged Network

Most non-technology company BoDs have little tolerance for network acronyms and jargon. The convergence plan has to be put into simple cost and benefit terms. I have found that workplace scenarios are the best method to communicate network benefits. Scenarios such as how a mobile worker obtains and/or sends corporate information and communicates while on the road, new
forms of customer communications that increase loyalty or reduce cost or increase time to market, how sales professionals are able to organize key corporate resources they need to close a new deal, how your corporation will be able to work more efficiently with partners, how the value chain is streamlined, etc. These scenarios provide the board with a view into how the network
plan you are proposing impacts business process and the work cycle within your corporation and directly links it to increased revenue and profit drivers. The main point to communicate in Part 2 is to demonstrate that the converged network has a direct impact on the successful implementation of corporate strategy.

Part 3: Financials and Next Steps

After Parts 1 and 2 the CIO, with support of the CFO, can present and discuss the financials of the converged networks. High points will be the capital spend over the next several years, the impact to the IT and corporate operational budget over that same time frame, the pay back period, etc. Every board is different. Some may provide approval right then and there if the arguments
are sound and the CFO approves of the financial model, while others may require time to consider and discuss the proposal among themselves. A lively discussion with large doses of Q&A during the presentation is often a positive sign. Frankly, personalities play a big part in these meetings and how the board views the CIO and IT in general. Clearly the more the board
views the CIO as a stakeholder and trusted partner the easier funding approval is. In the financial model there are important items to avoid. For example, projecting increased productivity, revenue and profit numbers in your budget to increase the ROI will open up a rat hole that you may never get out of and even worse ruin your credibility. While your numbers and methodology may be sound to you, boards and executive management know that increased revenue and profit are multi-variable equations in which IT plays a role, but an often nonquantifiable one. In short, your convergence budget should be based upon hard cost
displacement that is predictable and tangible. By the way, the closer to the left of 24 months your ROI is the better.

Assuming funding is authorized the next step is to develop an RFP and start the competitive bidding process. If you followed the assumptions listed in the Lippis Report Volume 38 www.lippis.com, then your budget did not include competitive pricing, but only discounted list pricing. As long as you did a thorough job of gathering current spending you and your board
should be pleasantly surprised when the quotes come in from the service providers and vendors.
Best of luck in securing your funding.

Posted 21 October 2004 at 7:08 am under Lippis Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.