Outfront Solution Design

Over the past few years I have done a lot of work with local government in South Africa.  I would dearly like to say that it has been a pleasure.  In all my time as a software developer and database designer/implementer I have never seen such a shocking state of disarray.  I actually thought that I had slipped into some sort of horrible nightmare the first time I was exposed to the management systems of some of our municipalities.  The state of the data that is used to run these organizations is not up to date and none of the various components within the system have data that correlates exactly with the next.  These people would be better off moving back to a paper based setup than trying to work with what they have.

The major challenge here lies in the fact that these organizations are usually short on cash.  The irony here is that if they were running efficiently through sane systems, they would probably not have these money problems.  I despair when I see how much money is wasted on commercial systems that never seem to work properly, when the central government could put funding into developing an open source toolset that could be rolled out to all the local government players.  These tailor-made solutions would attract a once-off development cost and a country-wide maintenance plan.  To top it all these could all be linked in together to form a national reporting framework, which would facilitate better government practices.  The solution is simpler than it would first appear to be.

In closing, a unified approach to information systems in all spheres of government would go a long way to solving many of the problems faced by civil servants.  Such systems could be developed at a fraction of the cost of proprietary software, whilst at the same time providing jobs and experience to local budding software engineers (meaning that the expertise necessary to run and maintain said systems would all be at our fingertips).  These systems could generate additional revenue through rolling them out throughout Africa and elsewhere.  Proper systems would also ensure that all data countrywide would conform to a standard and gradually be “scrubbed” to a point where it is clean and usable.  If some of these suggestions are not followed we will plummet over the precipice into data oblivion, never to return.

Outfront Solution Design came about as a response to business challenges that seem to exist in most companies using high tech information systems in order to get the job done.  The use of these technologies involves a big paradigm shift from more traditional methods of dealing with data, business workflow and business intelligence.  If one looks at information technology related projects that have succeeded you will notice that most of the effort has been spent on needs discovery, business process design, system design and planned implementation.  Gone are the days where the geeks had a planning session with business (usually with both parties completely missing each other’s point of view) and then went back to their darkened room and frantically coded a solution that wasn’t what the business required.  This is where we come in.  We provide the glue and discipline that gets all parties on the same page.

We assist business in figuring out what they really require from their processes, workflows and eventually well orchestrated systems.  We convey the results of sessions with business to the development team/s (which we are capable of assembling and running, although this is not our core business) and make sure that communication channels remain open right through the design, development and implementation phases.  It is important that changes to scope and design occur as early as possible in any project, as the later they are brought up the more expensive they get to put in place.

Once the systems are in place, companies often believe that they can relax and ride the wave.  Like any machine or system, maintenance is required.  Data quality management is key to keeping any information system working accurately and smoothly.  This maintenance has to be regular and thorough to be effective.  Document management is also key to the success of any organization.  Documents need to be subjected to proper version control if they are to be accurate and current.  The risks involved with many branches of the same document existing on your staff’s personal computers is huge.  Clients always end up receiving the incorrect version of a document at some stage, and this can cost your company the deal.

So make the smart choice.  Talk to us or someone like ourselves before you start that exciting new project.  We specialize in making these kinds of projects work, so that you can concentrate on your core business.  Relying on our expertise is the smart move.