Before You Approve Another It Project, Ask These Seven Questions

By Author: SevenC
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Most IT projects start with a good reason. The business wants faster processes, better security, fewer manual tasks or a better experience for customers.

Then the project gets underway.

The quote turns out to be only part of the cost. The new software doesn’t talk properly to an older system. Staff find it frustrating and start working around it. Six months later, management is asking whether the investment made anything better.

A Virtual CIO helps businesses work through those questions before the money is committed. If you’re considering new software, cloud infrastructure, equipment or another sizeable IT investment, these are seven questions worth asking first.

1. What problem are we trying to fix?

“Modernizing the business” sounds good, but it doesn’t tell you what needs to change.

Be specific. Are customers waiting too long for responses? Are employees capturing the same information twice? Is an ageing server causing downtime? Does the business have a security gap that needs to be closed?
Once the problem is clear, you have something concrete to assess the proposed ...
... solution against.

It also makes the decision easier later. Did the project fix the problem you approved it to fix? If nobody can answer that, the objective probably wasn’t clear enough in the first place.

2. What is this going to cost us in practice?

The number on the supplier’s quote is rarely the whole number.
There may be implementation fees, data migration, licences, staff training, additional security controls, maintenance and future upgrades. You may also need new hardware or additional services to make the system work properly.

Then there’s disruption.

If a team of 20 people loses a few hours of productive time during a migration, that has a cost too. So does downtime while systems are moved or configured.

Before approving the project, work out the likely total cost rather than comparing suppliers on the headline price alone. This is one area where a Virtual CIO can help management pressure-test the numbers before signing anything.

3. Will it work with what we already have?

A piece of software can look excellent in a demo and still cause headaches once it meets your existing IT environment.

What does it need to connect to? Your accounting software? CRM? Microsoft 365? An older database that nobody wants to touch because it still runs an important part of the business?

Integration problems often create exactly the kind of manual work the new system was supposed to remove. Staff end up copying information between systems, maintaining spreadsheets on the side or finding their own workarounds.

Check compatibility before signing the agreement, not during implementation.

4. What does it change about our security and compliance?

Every new system changes your security picture in some way.

Start with the data. What information will the system hold? Where will it be stored? Who can access it? What happens to that data if you stop using the provider?

Then look at the provider itself. How is access controlled? What backup and recovery processes are in place? How are security incidents handled?
For South African businesses, POPIA requirements also need to be part of the discussion where personal information is involved.

Security shouldn’t be something added to the project after the system has already been chosen.

5. What happens if the business grows?

A system that works for 15 employees may not be the right system for 100.
Think about where the business is heading. Can the platform handle more users, customers, transactions, locations and data? What happens to the price as usage increases?

Also check whether scaling means simply adding users or whether you’ll eventually hit a technical or licensing limit that forces another migration.

Replacing a system after two years because the business outgrew it is an expensive way to discover that nobody asked this question at the start.

6. Will people use it?

This one gets underestimated.

A system can be technically excellent and still fail because employees hate using it. If a process that used to take four clicks now takes twelve, people will find shortcuts. Sometimes that means spreadsheets. Sometimes it means WhatsApp. Either way, you’ve created another problem.
Speak to the people who will use the system before the final decision is made. Find out how it changes their day-to-day work and where they expect problems.

Training matters too. So does support after launch.

A successful implementation isn’t one where the software went live on time. It’s one where people can use it properly and the business gets the improvement it paid for.

7. How will we know whether it worked?

Decide this before approving the project.

If the goal is to reduce downtime, measure downtime before and after implementation. If the goal is faster customer service, track response times. If the project is supposed to cut manual admin, measure how much staff time the current process takes.

Pick measures that relate directly to the problem you started with.
Otherwise, six months after launch, you may know that the system is running but still have no idea whether it was worth the money.

Get the business case right before choosing the technology

IT decisions can get technical very quickly. Features, specifications and supplier comparisons start taking over the conversation.

But management still must answer a fairly simple question: does spending this money make sense for the business?

That means looking at cost, risk, integration, security, staff adoption and what the company expects to get back from the investment.

SevenC’s Virtual CIO service helps management assess proposed IT investments before those decisions are locked in. That includes reviewing options, building the business case and turning business requirements into a practical technology plan.

The aim isn’t to buy more technology. It’s to make better decisions about the technology the business needs.
Ask the difficult questions before approving the project. They’re usually much cheaper to answer before implementation starts.

Learn more about Virtual CIO - https://sevenc.co.za/virtual-cio/

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