Language is a funny thing, it’s funny how a catchphrase or label can turn words from having positive to negative connotations. Coalitions in the second world war were the norm for governments, quite positive, after all we triumphed. The current UK coalition, well the jury is out. George Bush once use the phrase “coalition of the willing” to refer to the countries who supported the invasion of Iraq. You can see how something positive can easily turn negative. Same goes for partnering, partnerships and the like. Late 90’s and early 00’s we’ve talked nothing other than partner this partner that. We’ve outsourced lots of things to some very poor partners. Especially in the public sector. Would you see partnering with G4S or Serco as a good or bad thing?
The real gift though is to go against the grain, I used the phrase “coalition of good IT people” to describe the other companies that we work with, those who refer us work and we refer it back. Not because of any commercially beneficial arrangement (if there were, I’d be driving a better car) – simply because I know those people will do a good job for the customer. Experience of working together, builds trust, builds a network of people you’d keep going back to. Regardless of whether these people work direct or indirect for a company, it’s more important to deal with good, genuine people who deliver…
Today I had a mammoth air conditioning failure and I dealt with my favourite supplier, I have been using David for close to ten years. He supplies self-install units and providing IT services to construction and specialist companies in quite often, portacabins means I’ve got my own ways of getting cost effective cooling for server rooms done.
One of the said units had been in for quite some time and failed. Open to the harsh environment of being next to the sea and running 24/7 the unit had failed. David said to me that he wished all his customers were so easy to deal with, when I found that he didn’t have the model I wanted in stock, I opted for the next unit down. After thinking for a moment I thought about it and said, that it’s down to trust – I’d been dealing with him for so long that I rely on him for advice when something goes wrong so I’m simply not going to quibble about swapping a model round here and there as long as we get the problem sorted.
I’ve been an IT guy for more years than I care to even think about these days, a baptism by fire – I’ve dealt with more equipment and supplier failures than my fingernails can take. Just today after the air-conditioning failure I had the fact that the phone system power supply unit had burnt out due to the heat! Everything can and does happen at once
But managing, sorting problems and knowing who to call to get stuff done is what we do as part of our managed services. We want our customers to be part of that coalition of good people too. I’m really pleased to have a great number of IT Managers and Directors who are really nice people and as Unleashed begins to offer more managed services to companies that rely on us to be their IT capability, I’m really positive about finding more good companies to work with.
So whilst partnering, outsourcing and even managed services are often surrounded by bad connotations maybe a coalition of good people – the people you pick up the phone to in order to get stuff done is what you’re after. Unleashed as the UK’s first boutique IT consultancy are those people and to find out more about the difference, why not just pick up the phone or go social and experience the difference for yourself.
