In Sum - Who is Moving Your Goalposts ?

Whenever I speak with a client about their requirements for any given project or solution, I'm mindful to how those requirements may change over time. Quite often, the client themselves might not know, but if we fail to collaborate and anticipate how a solution's use may evolve, we risk it becoming insufficiently future-proof, thereby falling victim to Shadow IT, subversion, and misuse.

Along with a client, I learned the hard way that just because a business doesn't think it needs something doesn't mean its people will agree!

Several years ago, a client approached us for a new wireless solution. They aimed to provide WiFi connectivity across their building for occasional executive laptop use, handheld scanners in the warehouse, and guest access in meeting rooms. Our best estimate was that maybe a couple dozen devices across the whole site would be used – all with minimal bandwidth requirements. With a tight budget in mind, we opted for a basic wireless controller and access points (APs) from a second-tier vendor catering to the SME market. The solution was installed, the wireless keys set up, and all was well for the first 12-18 months.

Then, the system became unusable. The client complained, and we inspected the coverage settings, made some adjustments to the configuration, and the system improved immediately. However, it only lasted two weeks before it hit the floor, and we were called out again. This time we noticed that the system was leasing a lot of IP addresses – far more than we'd have expected in just a couple of weeks. Despite querying our customer if it was just a few guests and the handhelds, they were adamant these were the only devices in use. The system didn't provide any substantive information on usage. The controller was primarily a unit to coordinate the configuration of what would otherwise be standalone APs. We reset the configuration and, lo and behold, everything improved…for two weeks!

When we returned, our engineers were certain there was something amiss. The number of devices and the traffic demands were overwhelming the system once more. The client was hesitant to replace his less than two-year-old wireless system with a more capable cloud-based system (one that would provide the insights we needed!). After much back and forth, we proposed installing a Cisco Meraki system on a sale or return basis.

About a month later, the results were in – the traffic utilization was skyrocketing with Spotify and YouTube streaming of videos and music. Now that we had the tools to see the traffic, we quickly understood what was happening.

Every time we reconfigured the system, we'd change the wireless encryption keys, and it would take about a week for them to migrate from the notice on the boardroom table (for guest use) to every member of the warehouse team, who were using their smartphones on the wireless system to listen to music during their monotonous work.

We sold the solution and learned a valuable lesson – always check who might be moving your goalposts!

In Sum –

• Anticipate not just the immediate business requirements, but also how people might want to use the solutions you provide beyond these.
• Always ensure you have sufficient visibility into how a solution is being used – black box systems, where you don't know what's happening inside and can only see the results, pose a risk.
• If you're asking a business to make an investment without all the necessary data, be prepared to share the risk.

#ProjectManagement #BusinessInsights #WirelessSolutions #NetworkTraffic #ChangeManagement #GoalpostShifting #InvestmentRisk #CustomerService #FutureProofing #ShadowIT #Meraki #Cisco #Spotify #YouTube #SMEs