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How to Take the Pain Out of Annual Planning

Read the NECO case study on planning. Download the webinar slides to review and share.

Video Transcript

Slide 1:

Hello and welcome to this webinar. My name is Alan Welch, and I am the Director of Sales here at KTS.

We’ve developed these recorded webinars for your convenience. We understand how busy your days can be so we offer a recorded option that you can listen to when it fits in your schedule.

Today’s webinar is on How to Take the Pain out of Annual Planning. For most IT and facilities management, the annual planning process can be stressful, to say the least.  We’re going to look at ways to lighten that load.

So let’s get started.

Slide 2 – Could you use some help?

The dreaded planning process has arrived.

For IT and facilities managers, this can be a particularly painful process. Unlike other departments, it seems our colleagues face an uphill battle in making the plan work for them and their teams. 

Why is that?  We’ll share insights from working with our clients and propose ways to take the pain out of the plan.

Slide 3 –  3 parts to the webinar

There are 3 parts of today’s webinar.

First I will briefly introduce KTS so you have an understanding of what we do and who we work with.

Next I will talk about 3 common scenarios that undermine the planning process for IT and facilities folks.

Finally, I will propose ideas so the plan includes your needs and input and sets you and your team up for a more successful year. 

Slide 4:

So let me tell you a bit about KTS.

Slide 5:

 KTS has been in business over 35 years, earning a reputation for outstanding service combined with craftsmanship and best-in-class technologies. 

We are located in Stoneham MA and serve our clients throughout New England and across the United States as they expand

We are experts in network cabling, indoor cellular BDAs, wireless networks, security and audio visual solutions.

Our client base covers all sectors. We have built a niche in both Education and Healthcare partnering with leaders including Bentley University, MIT, Lahey Health Systems and Hallmark Health to name a few. 

We support our clients from initial planning through installation to bring our insight and expertise with a commitment to designing the best solution to meet your needs and your budget.  We save our clients time and money when we are included early in the planning process.

Slide 6:

Here is an overview of what we do.

Although our services are all encompassing, our specific areas of expertise such as communications infrastructure, wireless networks and A/V systems will be the topics of future webinars. A complete list of webinars and blogs can be accessed from our website, www dot kts dash inc dot com.

Slide 7:  Our areas of Expertise

Today we are focused on planning.  This process is commonly painful for our colleagues in IT and facilities.  We’ll talk about how we help our clients during the planning cycle to ensure the plan is thoroughly scoped and prioritized so adequate resources (both financial and human) can be secured.

That’s what you hope for, but does it always happen?  It can!

Slide 8:

We find 3 common scenarios that derail the planning process when it comes to IT and facilities departments. Let’s discuss each scenario to see if these sound familiar.

Slide 9:

Scenario #1 – you are not invited.

The plan is developed in your absence

No invitation means no input.

You find out after the fact and critical elements in the plan that will affect your department’s bandwidth and priorities have been scoped without you.  

When this happens, we find that crucial elements have been missed:  there are gaps in the scope, estimates are inaccurate – either too high or too low.  The end result is almost always the same: change orders, cost overruns and a lot of frustration.

Slide 10:

The 2^nd common scenario – your group is an afterthought.

You are invited, but at the 11^th hour.  The meeting is at 3 and you just found out about it. 

There’s no time to  prepare

No time to review requirements, plan, phase or get budgetary quotes. You are behind before you get started.

Everything is a SWAG – a silly wild ass guess because your group was an afterthought.

Last minute guessing leads to 1 of 2 outcomes:  either the numbers are too high and the project is rejected because cost estimates were high  OR the estimate is incomplete and the effort has been underestimated resulting in surprises, frustration, finger pointing and unhappy end users. 

Slide 11:

The 3^rd scenario – you were invited. The planning process is defined and laid out

BUT

You have NO bandwidth to attend NOR do you have anyone from your team available to represent you at the planning table.  You are going as fast as you can…

You are overwhelmed and setting yourself up for a tough fiscal year ahead as your team’s voice will not be heard or incorporated.

Slide 12:

Does any of this sound familiar?

Slide 13:

So what can you do? 

Let’s talk about making the plan work for you and your team.

Slide 14:

In the 3 scenarios we just reviewed, improving the process WILL improve the plan.

SO

How do you get invited to the planning table?

How do you get invited sooner if your group is an afterthought?

And finally, how do you find bandwidth?

Let’s talk about improving the process to help make the planning process less painful for you.

Slide 15:

You and your team have important information that needs to be part of an effective planning process.  Helping others in your organization understand the value you bring to the table is often a key way to heighten importance of inviting you and inviting you in time to bring that value to the table.

Reminding others the insight you have in terms of priorities, defining requirements, phasing and defining realistic timelines are key inputs you and your team contribute. Budgets are only as good as the scoping of the initiative!

I want to share an example from a client where neither the client nor KTS was at the planning table and what happened…

Slide 16:

Example of Planning Gone Bad – this scenario happened when IT was not at the planning table and we were not there to represent them. This client was undergoing a significant physical expansion.  The project was scoped in absence of IT input; the amount of cable scoped to support the project was almost double what was actually needed. 

Costs were significantly higher – nearly double what they needed to be.  The IT closet had been scaled back and will not support future equipment or planned physical expansions.  The communications infrastructure would not scale…the result was significant cost overruns, time delays and missed deadlines.

Planning gone bad often results in playing whack a mole.  Your dept ends up on the defensive reacting to issues and problems.

The 3^rd common impact of bad planning is department morale – teams are frustrated and you  like you are the bad guys for affecting budgets and timelines yet others never included you at the planning table.

In a situation like this there is plenty of frustration to go around. Unfortunately sometimes it takes a bad planning example to make the point of how important it is to have you at the table to be part of the process!

Slide 17:

So what do we offer our clients?

As you can see, we work with our clients throughout all stages, from planning to design to installation and then ongoing service and support.  Our business model is to earn our client’s business, being part of the team throughout the lifecycle. 

Our clients count on us as part of the team, either being at the table with you or representing you – your call.

The planning process is where we help our clients considerably…

Slide 18:

We bring expertise and insight to the planning table:

We help our clients in a variety of ways but often there are phases or specific deliverables that we are completing for our clients within the planning phase.

Examples include:

• Clients ask us to assess scalability of their infrastructure or to complete an assessment to prioritize what needs to be addressed and what can be sequenced in a later phase.  These assessments are inputs into the annual planning cycle.
• Requirements and scoping. Proper planning means having time to capture requirements and scope the effort. Our clients benefit from the accuracy and completeness of these efforts to get projects properly surveyed. 
• Finally, proper annual planning is all about priorities and building a budget. From the requirements and scoping efforts, we develop and provide budgetary quotes so our clients have the supporting detail to present their annual plan.  We are especially effective in prioritizing essential requirements vs. ‘nice to have’ for budgets to get funded.
• Simply, we help our clients plan ahead for the planning process – asking the big picture questions that need answers to help phase and prioritize the work that needs to get funded. With us involved early, our clients consistently save time and money and get their projects approved.

Slide 19:

We are here to help you get to the planning table and dramatically improve the planning process for you and your team.

You know you need to be at the planning table to have the input and insight into upcoming priorities, projects and phasing.

We can help you in one of two ways – be with you or represent you.

You can count on us to leverage our decades of experience and expertise for practical, rational plans with phasing initiatives to meet budget parameters. 

Slide 20:

WHEN should you seek our help in the planning process?

• ideally 6 months in advance of your new fiscal year;  if your fiscal year begins July 1, now is the time. For many of our clients we are meeting throughout the year but schedule annual planning meetings 6 months in advance so we can start discussing and documenting priorities and have plenty of time to scope and budget and phase as is often needed to meet budget constraints.

Slide 21: Final Slide

So, reach out to secure KTS as your local partner to help take the pain out of planning. Simply click the link to set up a meeting, click to send us an email with questions or feedback on this webinar or call me directly.

To learn more about KTS and our expertise and experience click on the links to go to our website or read a case study to give you a better feel for how we work with our clients.

Finally, connect with us on social media. You can follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for announcements of new blogs, case studies and solutions for your business.

We hope this webinar was informative and helpful. Thank you for listening.