Technology Reseller - v13 2018

01732 759725 INFORMATION MANAGEMENT 36 ...continued expectations and end user engagement. This is partly down to the waterfall delivery model – the process of designing a massive system at one point in time, spending two years delivering it and then, when you roll it out, finding that what you have built wasn’t what you wanted in the first place and is certainly not fit-for- purpose now. We deploy an agile delivery model. Our delivery team works on the basis of minimum viable product and works very, very closely with people on iterations that deliver functionality and move them closer and closer to their digital workplace. This controls spend, it controls requirements and it helps align priorities between the business and IT functions. That’s a massive component of our success and you can’t do that unless you have a fundamentally agile product underneath. A good example is a large deal we did at the end of last year. As part of the proof of concept, the customer wanted us to run a trial for 6-8 weeks, for 20 users across five domains of their business. It didn’t have to be full function, but they wanted to take a long hard look and poke and squeeze M-Files appropriately. We sat down and ran an interactive requirements workshop with them on Monday, configured the system on Tuesday, demonstrated it and got feedback on Wednesday; made the amendments on Thursday; trained them on Friday; and users were on the system the following Monday. Then we had bi-weekly review meetings on site where we customised the system and resolved any issues. TR: An older, established competitor wouldn’t be able to compete with that. TW: No, it’s not the way they think about things. Often, people end up bringing in consultancies. The consultancies have a war room, there are post-it pads all over the wall, there are lots of consultancy discussions and, at the end, there’s a massive requirements document that goes into a specification. This way of working doesn’t meet the requirements of today’s digital age. Somebody else recently commented that one company’s vision of the digital workplace is different to another’s. The reality is that a project will never be completed because over a couple of years AI will have moved on, the user community will have moved on, the customer may have sold some assets or bought a couple of businesses. Projects evolve and have no real end point, so it’s critical that you deliver value all along. www.m-files.com that makes now a good time to adopt this broader channel strategy? TW: It’s not driven by the technology roadmap or features and functions of M-Files 2018; the strategy would have been equally valid with prior releases of M-Files. That said, I do think that the nature of M-Files 2018 and the breadth of its appeal are starting to open up opportunities in areas of partnership that previously had not been available to us. One other aspect of the referral programme worth noting is that it not only appeals to resellers and go-to-market partners, but also to other technology go-to-market partners. For example, organisations that specialise in real estate and property management and have specialised line of business systems for that market, but no content management capability, are now able to bring M-Files to the table and know that they are fully supported from our side. Realistically, those people would never be resellers because they spend their time selling their own technology and their own solution and wouldn’t want to sell a third party’s. Being able to bring M-Files to the table is a great plus for them. TR: What are the big challenges facing M-Files UK this year? TW: Growth. Hiring. Talent. It’s an interesting market at the moment, in that we are seeing something of a changing of the guard, certainly in the mid-market, where some of the larger, legacy vendors are coming under a heck of a lot of pressure and people are demanding a more flexible, agile solution. I see two big challenges in the market. One is the digital workplace. Already 30% of the workforce is made up of digital natives – people who learnt to use an iPad before they learnt to use a pad – and by 2020 that’s going to be something like 70%. They are quite a fickle generation. They will wait 12 or 24 months for their next challenging assignment or promotion before they look elsewhere. At C-level, organisations are having to ensure they deliver flexible collaboration and content management systems and a vision of the digital workplace, otherwise they are simply unable to hire the right level of talent. I heard a quote from a CEO the other day that encapsulates this. He said: “I don’t need a digital strategy for my business; I need a business strategy for the digital age.” That sums up the inevitability of the change. The other challenge is in delivery. Many large IT projects run and run and run, cost a fortune and never truly deliver on Tracie Fawcett @philjones40 Insider... Check and validate Travelling by train in Japan recently, I was struck by the regimented pointing and calling undertaken by train drivers (a practice known as ‘Shisa Kanko’). Drivers sit behind glass screens, so their every action and movement can be seen by passengers, and constantly validate their actions.  Whilst all this pointing and calling could be construed as theatre, it is actually a procedure for avoiding accidents. Using one’s brain, eyes, hands, mouth and ears helps focus attention and is reputed to significantly reduce mistakes when carrying out simple tasks. Even the people on the platforms do it. Shisa Kanko seems a bit strange when you see it for the first time, almost like overkill. Yet because of it, the Japanese railway network is one of the most efficient in the world and has one of the best accident records. This commitment to excellence extends to other areas of life, including communications. In Japan, before sending an e-mail or message, content is checked to ensure it has all the right information and to avoid miscommunication. Great care is taken in planning meetings to make sure everyone understands in advance what is to be discussed, the timings and what materials are required. This ensures everything runs to plan. In his recent book, The Excellence Dividend , Tom Peters wrote “Excellence takes time”. All too often we don’t take the time to double-check things, which inevitably leads to errors and inefficiency. If we all want to stand out as sales professionals or business people, holding high standards can pay big dividends. I’m not saying you have to point and call at every communication you make, but taking the time to prep things, to deliver communication of a high standard, to define outcomes in advance of a meeting will benefit all around you. Like many things, lessons are always around us, and that train journey in Japan was a great reminder of the importance and value of being systematic about excellence and always considering the impact of your actions on others. See you out there. Phil Jones MBE , Managing Director, Brother UK