In the world of IT, complicated=money, end of story.
This applies to all sorts of projects and systems, and we especially see it with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications, where, instead of buying something off the shelf that will meet 80% of your CRM requirements, one of the IT staff “has a go” at a custom and bespoke system, that only they know how to fix/change/update, and then they leave at some point for another job. We often see this when we do an IT Audit of an organisation. Keeping IT Simple is a great approach but not used often enough.
That person has good intentions, but the end result is time and money wasted. This applies most often to non-profit organisations where money is tight. Again, there’s good intentions, but the result can be a mess that staff end up not using, or spending more time trying to use.
Most non-profits have access to heavily discounted product from Microsoft and many other software/service providers. The cost does come in the setup and designing/building of a CRM or some other system, but generally if it’s done right, the outcome is better, cheaper, easier.
Our advice? Keep “Keeping IT Simple” in the forefront of your mind wherever possible, and don’t take an option off the table only because of license costs. Make sure you weigh everything up. There’s a reason we look at TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): it’s because that’s what you need to look it, not to mention the intangible items like usability and ability to do upgrades.
