Trenchant Systems in 2008

trench·ant [ trénchənt ]

adjective Definition:

searching: having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought, expression, 
or intellect; "searching insights"; "trenchant criticism" hard-hitting: characterized by or full of force and vigour;
"a hard-hitting expose"; "a trenchant argument" 

If the general economic forecast for 2008 is correct, then we are in for a challenging year. The media are reporting the reduction of house prices, rising inflation, the credit crunch reducing the amount of funding available. While these things may occur, I’m not going to add to frenzy of doom sayers. I’m a great believer of self fulfilling prophecy, and I’m going to highlight something different. One of the hardest things to do is to change the way you think. This is because we have all been programmed by our environment to respond in certain ways. I want to show you something different.

We should listen to these warnings of  incoming economic bad weather and start preparation.  The normal response is to cut investment, abandon projects, stop employment and hide under a rock until the sun comes out again. However this behavior actually causes the very thing we fear, economic downturn.

Instead, we should take these warnings of indication that what we have been doing over the past few years, will no longer work, what we need to do is find new ways of achieving our goals. As an example lets look at the music industry. Record labels saw the forecast of the incoming Digital MP3 music format and internet downloads. They rightly feared that this would impact on their sales and they expended huge amounts of money and energy to try and stamp it out. While they we trying to stamp it out, Apple computers were embracing it and quietly innovating and looking for ways to exploit the Ipod. They now practically control most of the internet downloads via Itunes. The music industry now have to approach Apple to be included in this distribution system.

It still astounds me that a computer manufacturer could create and control a music distribution system before the music industry. If the music industry realised that what had worked in the past, will no longer work in the future, and looked for new ways to achieve the same goals. Things may be drastically different today.

The point to take away after reading this is that you need to innovate. Be aware of your thinking and be willing to make changes and avoid the pre-programmed responses.

This is the core ethos of the company I founded, Trenchant Systems ltd. I set-up Trenchant Systems to help business managers focus on using Information Technology to meet business goals. Information Technology is often the most expensive operational cost, second only to payroll. We also have the problem where even after the expenditure, Your IT solutions may not be actually be performing in the way you need. Trenchant Systems can help you turn this around by making your systems more business focused, and at the same time look for ways to reduce your operational costs.

We also get you to focus on the goals of your business rather than IT products. I often say “People buy drills not because they like buying drills, they buy drills because they need to hang a picture, or install a light fitting. It’s all about the requirement, rather than the product.”

I approach this by doing the following:

• Establishing your business goals and time constraints.
• What your biggest problem areas are.
• Evaluating the use of Open Source technology
• Determining your criteria for success.

After we been through these activities , you should have an IT infrastructure which is brings more benefits to your business, and more cost effective.

By innovating and changing your thinking, it is possible to reach your business goals despite some of the economic pressures. So don’t change your goals, change how you achieve them.