Wright Consulting

Historically, the roles that women have held in technology have been few and far between.  In the stereotypical American business world, the women with actual “pure” technical degrees involving programming, database structures and system architecture were very few  and often from diverse cultures.  Technology was considered to be a man’s world - pocket protectors and stringing cable.  It was not until “attention to detail”  become measurable in the aspects of scope definition and functional requirements - spawning the emphasis on Project Management - did new roles for women emerge.  Women rapidly became Centers of Influence in organizations that promoted the use of Project Management.  You can find these women in corporate Information Technology departments, separate business units (PMO’s or Business Analysis).  They may have roles that align functionally to the basic business groups such as Accounting, Sales, Operations.  They may be independent outside consultants.  The common thread is that all Centers of Influence have the same characteristics that are perceived by others - they are Authorative, Powerful, and Motivating.  “Perception is Reality” that is Influence.

Is it time to “call a pig’s ass pork?   Time for Turnaround Management in the Information Technology department?

Often executive management does not know really what to do with IT.  It is an area that is not in their “comfort zone”.  The CIO or management leader of the area typically can do a great job of “blowing Smoke” or is perhaps even better at “Smoke and Mirrors”.  The executive management team does not know what to expect, consequently they cannot ask the right questions - and even if they did - they certainly could not accurately evaluate the typical answer provided by the technical leadership.  It’s all so damn technical, a bunch of acronyms strung together - to make a guy or girl look and feel really smart and intimidating, a bit smug amidst the members of the board room.

It’s no one deliberate intentions - or is it?  I am just trying to advocate the position of the business leader trying to hit projections, the customer trying receive the best quality, and the investor trying to get a return.

The problem truly is that the typical IT leader does not know that he or she is “overhead”  and that they need to deliver on the business goals and objectives -  and not their own. By the way - a pig’s ass is pork - Just a nicer way of saying the truth. 

Does your IT department suck? Is the IT department able or willing to respond to both internal and external customer needs?  Does it ENABLE business growth?  Just a nicer way of asking the truth?  

As a strong business oriented CIO with over 27 years in fortune 500 endeavors - I understand the issues and can help sort them out and bring about a positive solution for all involved.   

If your IT dept sucks - or you even think it does.  Please contact me for direction and support via my contact page or my blog.

Need to select an EMR software and get it implemented in time to take advantage of the stimulus funding?  Too many choices to choose from - especially if you do not know how to effectively narrow the scope.  How do you perform a software selection and get it right?  Between determining functionality needs, assessing vendor & your own internal resources, navigating price structures - both initial and ongoing maintenance - the whole process can be daunting.  

Especially when the market is flooded with vendors hawking their products and in many cases these sales & implementation people are new to the business - especially healthcare - clinical staff  rules & regs?, quality guidelines?, HIPPA?, CMS audits? - What?  As a clinician or an administrator concerned for patient care - the lack of healthcare knowledge amongst the software vendor implementation staffs can be disconcerting. 

The various software vendors providing EMR solutions have recently been ranked by Black Book - division of market research group Brown-Wilson.  The rankings are broken down between physician office (varying physician numbers) and hospitals (varying bed count) and Emergency room software.  To see the breakdown and to get a starting point for selection - go to http://www.healthcareitnews.com.

If you want help sorting through the details and helping you formulate a plan of action and execution - send me an email via my contact page to schedule a time to talk - best of luck. 

Due Diligence for the Information Systems component of a Merger and Acquisition is not an easy task to perform well unless you have a substantial, well-rounded technical background & understand the concepts of  risk management and material importance.  Not an easy job description to fill - and yet this is a job that is essential to the success of a company’s future - regardless if the company is the potential buyer or the seller.  Often time the role is assigned to a professional that is less than qualified for a variety of reasons  - which I will outline in a future post. For now I want to help the professional who got the assignment.

1.  Request  Business Operations and IT organization charts - with job descriptions and salaries.  The Business chart should only need to go 2 or 3 levels of hierarchy to get an understanding of the corporate decision making practices and the interaction with the IT group.  The IT chart needs to be detailed - all positions (filled & opened, consultants, part-time) 

2.  Request an overview of the application and environment topology.  Provide an outline to help structure the overview and one that you can continue to refer to- for further detail.  This framework will help establish terminology (always different between groups) and keep everyone involved (the bankers, the funding organizations, the executives and you) organized, focused - and documented.  A key component of the framework should be the financials associated with IT annual costs and projected capital expenditures. 

3.  Request individual interviews with the leaders/managers within the IT group concentrating on their area of responsibility but getting answers on a core group of questions involving customer/business interactions. Typically these are related to vendor, project and change management practices and policies.

4.  Request individual or group interviews with business functional area leaders. The goal of these interviews is to understand  production support issues,  business application goals that may have an impact on current or future revenue projections.  These interviews will also serve to identify “gaps” between the business perceptions and IT perceptions of the information systems and the organization.  Always interesting.

5. Prepare initial findings and identify potential major risks - on a preliminary basis.  Next steps need to be prepared which will be dependent on your own talents and skills.  You may determine that you need a subject matter expert to further evaluate the risk - i.e. typical areas:  Network topology/redundancy, disaster recovery, vendor licenses. 

Please contact me for further information around framework, inital findings and getting prepared for the interviews - Best of luck

Congratulations to Vanderbilt, our outstanding local hospital for providing excellent patient safety and quality - and being recognized by a very tough standards organization - Leapfrog.  I have personal experience with the clinical staff and the extraordinary technology that sets Vanderbilt apart from other research hospitals.  Their custom EHR system is phenomenal and it sets the bar for measuring accountability.  Hats off!  For more details surrounding the survey and the other top ranked hospitals go to http://www.healthcareitnews.com.