Situation

The CEO and executive team grew increasingly frustrated with the IT team’s lack of leadership and lack of ideas for how systems could best be applied to improve the business. The executive team couldn’t get accurate and timely reports that they actually believed in – reports needed to make smart business decisions. And when the executive team asked IT for something, the answer was usually “no.” IT was consumed with fighting fires and just keeping the system running. Despite working long hours, the team lacked efficiency. Users hated the system because it was cumbersome. Summary: The company felt stuck with its current IT system and its current internal/external IT team.

The CEO had learned of Lazorpoint and its Point Man business approach a few years earlier and it became clear to him that it might be a better option. So the CEO replaced the IT director with Lazorpoint which, in turn, prompted the IT director’s two direct reports to resign almost immediately. Initially, the CEO was afraid of how the departure of all its institutional knowledge around Information Systems would impact the company’s ability to serve its customers. Lazorpoint assured the CEO: “You’ll get through this and be better for it. We’ve been through this many times with other clients.”

Solution

A Lazorpoint team was assigned. Point Man Mike immersed himself in the client’s business and systems, participating in weekly executive team meetings, as well as quarterly and annual strategic planning sessions. Lazorpoint implemented and customized its “Peace of Mind” framework consisting of processes, tools, and practices. All user-support requests were routed to Lazorpoint’s support team for timely resolution. Monitoring tools were deployed on all critical systems, and key measures reported back to Lazorpoint. An assessment of the IT/IS environment was completed and identified issues that might prevent the client from serving its customers adequately. Along the way, Mike discovered that many of the “systems issues” were caused by business processes not being consistently followed, a lack of training among key users, plus numerous poorly conceived customizations made to the ERP system.

Mike created a long-term IS vision, developed a roadmap to guide the company over the next few years, and assumed the role of “virtual” CIO.

Success

Mike, along with other Lazorpoint internal resources, moved forward with a new ERP system for accounting, purchasing, and inventory management, then added CRM for all customer-facing activities, a warehouse management system to automate many of the processes in the distribution centers, and an integrated e-commerce system. Confidence has returned to both the CEO and executive team. And users within the company are more engaged, have access to the data they need and when they need it, and enjoy peace of mind.