 The modern offering for technology allows you to choose between purchasing an asset outright or consuming it “as a Service” but what are the differences and what is the right fit for you?
When considering taking up a new piece of technology - software or hardware, you will have thought about why you need it and how you are going to use it. Purchasing the item allows you to hold it as an asset on your balance sheet and have full control of its safety protocols, upgrades and depreciation, potentially essential if your business deems that a critical risk, however if you don’t have the expertise in-house to support the asset it can be very costly. Taking on an item “as a Service” allows you to own access to a product without having to maintain it. It is similar to renting or leasing but with greater control over how the product is used and with an agreed upon schedule of maintenance and security. Pricing is clear, stable and easy to forecast. If your business wants to focus on just using the product rather than maintaining it, then this is most often the best way forward. Someone else has already invested up-front to create the service. We have been working with clients across various sectors and noted a few patterns when they have been standing up new services or looking to drive change and have noted a few patterns:
As an example, we have seen several companies look to stand up portfolio management offices. A great function to have within your business as it allows you to tame, drive and oversee all of the different projects in your business. However, more often than not a person is hired or seconded to implement the new service. They then spend a lot of time trying to get the resources and processes coordinated so that projects are done in a consistent way, and trying to find suitable software or creating convoluted spreadsheets to track projects. They will spend time on trying to wrangle project managers and get them to comply and, (even harder to do) get the leadership to follow the governance and prioritisation processes! What if you could simply sign up for an "as a Service" function - a service that has addressed all of the above - and allowed to you get going sooner, succeed (or fail) fast! At Resolution8 we have worked with clients and have built a capability that provides tools, processes, resources, staff expertise and experience as a Service. This is more than having a host of contractors at your beck and call, having Multi-Factor-Authentication (MFA) set up with user accounts prepared in readiness for a future need. Instead, it’s an agreement to provide what is needed and you leave the resourcing (n its broadest sense) to us. We have a team of great people, effective tools, detailed processes and a flexible approach so that we can dial up and down the resources we apply to your team based on what’s needed at a fixed cost to you. We have two offerings as a Service about to launch, So keep an eye out here for more info and our official launch shortly. [Update: Both services are now live!]
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If your organisation is collecting personal information about people; be that staff, customers or vendors, you have responsibilities as it relates to the information you hold on them. Every organisation has obligations under the privacy act and it's easy to not meet those obligations when it comes to technology and IT systems. Let's say you have a customer database, or you have a payroll system, or perhaps a system that your clients login to, well you now have information about people and now you have obligations around how you are collecting that information, looking after that information and destroying it. The Privacy Commission has a great site describing your obligations here, worth a read! You'll see there are 13 principles that need to be considered. All of this raised a bunch of questions right?
So now that you know you might have a problem how do you solve it? Let's unpack some of these things but the good news there is a great tool that you can use to assess any dataset / system for its compliance with the 13 principles in the privacy act! That great tool? A Privacy Impact Assessment or PIA. This is a document that looks at various areas to help you assess whether you are treating your data in accordance with the Privacy Act and helps you identify additional actions you need to take to get into compliance. So what do we need to look at? There are five areas around a data set / system:
All a little overwhelming right? Well... The good news!Resolution8 has been writing Privacy Impact Assessment with our clients since we started, we know what we are doing and can help you with your challenges. We offer fixed priced privacy impact assessments, so reach out to us and we can help you workout if you need to complete a PIA or perhaps your all good!
In the evolving landscape of early education, the effective use of data analytics has become a cornerstone for enhancing the service delivery and outcomes. In New Zealand, where the socio-economic landscape is diverse, understanding how resources are allocated and utilised is crucial. For an extended period, we have been analysing data from early education services across New Zealand, focusing on achieving operational excellence, improving childcare quality, and supporting the community. Our approach involves aggregating data from various systems used by these services and identifying correlations within the datasets. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are widely recognised for their robust applications in fields such as geology, natural resource management, and urban planning. Its use extends to health through the GeoHealth Laboratory, established in 2004 as a collaboration between the University of Canterbury and the Ministry of Health in New Zealand. However, its application in education planning remains limited. We see an opportunity to leverage GIS in the education sector to enhance outcomes for children in early education services. Driven by curiosity, we conducted an exploratory study using publicly available data to determine whether early learning services in different socio-economic regions receive the intended equity funding. Equity funding from the Ministry of Education is available to eligible early learning services, particularly those serving lower socio-economic communities, children with special needs, non-English-speaking backgrounds, services provided in languages other than English, and those with high isolation indexes. Our hypothesis posits that early learning services in highly deprived areas would have an equity index of 1 or 2, thereby attracting funding to support these children and their communities. For our analysis, we utilised deprivation data from 2018 and an Early Childhood Education (ECE) directory, which offers valuable information such as location and the current equity index of most services. We focused on South Auckland for two main reasons: we have clients in the region, and data is available to establish correlations between the equity index and the origins of Tamariki (children) for each centre. The map we developed currently represents data for all early education services in South Auckland. .  Data sources:
Preliminary findings indicate that most deprived areas have a concentration of centres with an equity index of 1 or 2, while more affluent regions typically feature centres with an equity index of 5 or higher. Our interest for further investigation lies in conducting a deep dive into regions with a deprivation index of 8 and above, alongside centres with an equity index of 5 or higher. Our exploratory study highlights the potential for GIS to enhance data analysis and decision making in early education services. While our initial findings suggest a relationship between deprivation levels and equity index ratings, further research is needed to paint a more comprehensive picture. These areas may require further mapping of Tamariki locations, which, although not providing a complete picture, could offer additional insights. To refine our analysis, we need more information about parents, including their income, skills, qualifications, benefits received, and household crowding levels. As we continue to explore these avenues, our goal remains to support early education services that enables equitable access to quality early education, ensuring that all children regardless of their circumstances, have the opportunities they deserve. About Resolution8 Our vision is to deliver positive transformation and enduring outcomes. We love data and curiosity drives our passion for it. We are continually learning and adapting to understand data, assist in improving quality, and derive actionable insights from them to achieve our vision while collaborating with our partners. Resolution8 was established in 2012 by Peter and Rochelle Gilbert when they noticed a need for IT project management in the Waikato region. They noticed often clients were relying on software providers to manage the software projects for them. Without the relevant IT experience, knowledge, and contract understanding, businesses are left feeling bamboozled by the software provider – more often this was to do with a lack of understanding alongside communication challenges between each party. Understanding of the business and the technology together was necessary for great results, but this needed to come along with good translation between all parties involved. Research into IT projects uncovered that many businesses who were working on IT projects at scale lacked good project practices to address vendor management, stakeholder management, risk and issue management, governance, and oversight. Worst still, there were times projects were being undertaken without a clear understanding of the benefits the client required to gain from the technology they were implementing, this led to project dissatisfaction with the outcomes they were getting. They wanted to ensure their clients were getting the outcomes they wanted when implementing IT projects within their business. So as their business grew, they made sure they were providing best practices to the situation, leveraging their years of IT project experience to make sure they were getting the best outcomes from projects and vendors. As more projects took place, and great outcomes, came more service opportunities. As they continued to deliver project management services it became clear that our clients would sometimes need help in other areas such as business analysis, solution design, and implementation. Working with a trusted band of contractors, they slowly built an excellent reputation in the Waikato and health markets. That later led to projects spanning further sectors and varying project types. During this time, they recognised that several of their clients were making technology decisions based entirely on the advice of those providing those technologies. When they contrasted smaller to medium-sized clients against our enterprise clients, they saw the enterprise clients had one unique advantage – a chief information officer – a strategic thinker that understood their business and technology and could orchestrate vendors, systems, and processes to realise the vision of the business they were part of. This led to the creation of Independent IT consulting in partnership with Phil Burton, who had seen the same thing with his own clients. This business would provide strategic advice and direction to clients who needed an independent partner in their business. Fast forward 8 years and it was time to grow Resolution8. With the addition of key staff, capabilities and capacity increased. This saw further organic growth across sectors. The outcomes that were achieved by the team, saw growth in reputation and trust in the market. 2020 to 2023 has been the biggest period of growth for Resolution8, including a merger. Independent IT consulting was merged into Resolution8 resulting in four core areas of offerings and a significant increase in staff (11 staff and 5 contractors). Our team at Resolution8 has been employed and contracted specifically for their expertise, skills, knowledge, and foundations to support all sectors, with any project at hand. We are proud to continue to provide highly experienced, independent support, and independent advice, where our team's soft skills are all enhanced with consistent and matured processes – ensuring your projects are well looked after with solutions and operational support.  In a connected world, multiple tools and tactics can be deployed to lower the risk of cyber-aggression disrupting business. There remains a residual risk that an attack, infiltration or unintended process failure can lead to loss of systems or data, privacy breaches and theft of IP, resulting in damage or even business failure.  Implementation of an Enterprise Risk and Assurance Management (ERAM) framework is recommended for all organisations. If used it is a wide and deep capability to reduce the likelihood and impact of cyber-aggression or process failure. In many cases the framework identifies an appetite for risk taking, in contrast to traditional risk avoidance. If utilised well a structured, phased approach can help to manage risk and protect value:
 Implementation of a comprehensive ERAM framework presents several challenges:
 Why Enterprise – why not just Risk Management?
Enterprise risk and assurance management comprises:
How does it work? Implementing Enterprise Risk and Assurance Management is a five step programme and, unlike other enterprise-wide initiatives, business units can be at differing stages of achievement of the plan. The Resolution8 model distinguishes phases which are flexible enough to take into account the varying stages of evolution of ERAM across the business. The five standard steps of a continuously improving Enterprise Risk and Assurance Management programme are:
If you would like to know more, or even have a current concern which needs support, get in touch: [email protected]  Artificial Intelligence is an evolving toolset that is becoming prevalent across the IT sector. But is it right for your organisation, should you adopt it and how can you do so safely? AI invokes the idea of fully automated decision making, freeing up time for people to do the tasks that computers cannot. However, AI should be viewed as a continuum of tools, on a scale that allows more, or less autonomy depending on the task you give it. For example, predictive text has been around since 1995 and only gets better with every release. It allows us to type with abandon to have our spelling corrected, or to prompt us for the word it expects us to write. However, all the decision-making rests in the hands, or fingers, of the user. Another familiar example would be the use of facial recognition. Many phones enable this feature; you no longer have to hold your face to a specific distance, angle, without glasses, in good light to be recognised. Instead, you glance at the camera and the phone recognises the user. This is a good example of using autonomous biometric analysis to “decide” if the similarities between photos is good enough to provide a positive match. At the other end of the scale, you have an AI who is making decisions that can impact many people’s lives – the common example being self-driving cars. It builds on semi-automated driving projects by the US DARPA 1984, and technology embedded in highways in 1991; to successfully apply AI to the problem in 2017 when Waymo trialed the first fully automated car. Image source: MoD, Defence Artificial Intelligence Strategy (June 2022), p 4: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1082416/Defence_Artificial_Intelligence_Strategy.pdf  How can I use AI in my organisation? When it comes to using AI within your organisation you need to approach it as you would any new tool: What is the problem to solve? What am I trying to improve? What value does it provide? How will I mitigate risks? Where you have initiated a change within your organisation for some improvement or problem solving, solid business analysis of your current state regards people, processes and technology will give huge gains in planning to implement AI. Once you know what you need, the tool selection is where you will need to work closely with your Leadership Team and Board to ensure they understand the risks, benefits, and potential of your new AI tool. As it is part of a new suite of tools it comes with a lot of bias generated from personal experience and news items. Walking your leaders through the implications of AI will allow them to partner and champion your new application.  The National Cyber Security Centre (part of GCSB) released guidance in January 2024 that helps to lay out the best way to approach embedding AI in your organisation. It’s been drafted in collaboration with 10 other country’s security centres to provide a secure way to embrace AI into your IT environment. The general premise is to approach it as you would any cyber security threat:
Many new frameworks are being developed to aid the use of AI throughout a normal development cycle. You can review and adopt the one that best suits your risk profile and flexibility requirements. Weaving these frameworks into your quality checks and overall governance posture will mean you can make informed decisions to get great outcomes with acceptable risks to your organisation.  Can we partner with you for technology advice?
If you are thinking of implementing a new AI tool in your organisation, as an application or as part of a process, take time to stop, plan, consider and seek out advice if you have a knowledge gap. Resolution8 can help with
-Louise Mercer [email protected] With the 2022/2023 financial year cleaned up, the year ahead looks interesting. Sneaking up on six years of Resolution8 Digital Advisory yet the business technology landscape is changing at probably a faster pace than ever before.
We are seeing interesting challenges across infrastructure/Cloud, security and AI and clients not necessarily sure of what they should be paying attention to in the information technology tent (sorry, just so sick of hearing about this “space” and going forward and any number of other cliches). Our banner of Independent is of value from a technology and business sense, even if only as a sounding board to ensure technology strategic and operations decisions are in the business’s best interests. It must be difficult to provide IT advice when you have any sort of alignment or partnership with vendors. Fortunately, at Resolution8 Digital Advisory , that is not a problem we face – our only concern is the best interest of our client – that’s it! So, if, as you peek ahead into the coming financial year, if you have any technology issues that would benefit from an Independent assessment – from Strategy to Operations, Contact any of us for a free first consultation. You have nothing to lose and plenty to gain. Useful links:
Software as a Service is a modern offering to people who want to outsource the day to day running of a piece of software. The most common one you will come across is Microsoft O365 – if you use the web portal you don’t have to do anything, you simply log in and start to use it. If you choose to have the application on your computer it’s a little different, the software will need occasional updates that will automatically get pushed to your machine and you will need to maintain the antivirus to your machine. But what about the other software you use to maintain your business? Most programmes send and receive information between multiple systems and any updates to these systems can have unexpected results. Updates are important and you can review what it will provide before agreeing to install it, most minor updates resolve glitches in the programme or patch security faults that have been found and resolved; major updates provide new functionality and often a new look and feel. However, any bespoke, meaning custom made, software will not only need to maintain any updates but it will also need testing to make sure that the information being sent and received has not been interrupted. Testing is an important part of any complex IT environment, it can be as simple as opening the programme on a daily basis and completing a simple action – a good example of this is checking your website is up and running every morning. But rigorous testing is essential especially if you have bespoke software or run a complex system across multiple pieces of software. This is where you need a plan.  A testing plan can be run by anyone within your IT team and should include a mixture of automated and manual tests. The best testing plans will also align with business needs and prioritise systems that achieve best performance for your essential business processes. This is where Resolution8 Digital Advisory can help.
We can work with you to review your current IT environment and understand how the programmes interact with each other, we can then review or create a business centric IT strategy and plan that can be reflected within your testing plan. Don’t let your IT environment become only “good enough”, keep it aligned to business needs with high performance outcomes - give us a call today. In today’s world of highly specialised technology, it is common for organisations of all sizes to outsource some or all of their IT function. But how do you get best performance from a new or aging contract? Working with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) or other IT Service begins with a contract between both parties. At the point of creation this contract should be a win for both sides – the service provider is charging a fair amount of money for a service the customer needs to do business. Ongoing contracts were originally created with a commitment from both sides to provide a service for a fee; if you have moved into a role where you now manage this service you should make yourself familiar with its contents. An aspect of contract signing often overlooked is how you will work through any disagreements, any perceived or actual failings in service, and how will you the customer know you are continuing to receive the service you pay for? Escalation points may be described but you should consider your personal approach to how you want to get best outcomes from the service contract.  Developing a strong communication approach between you both is the first step, agree up front how often you will meet and what that agenda is about. It is natural to develop a personal relationship if you meet the same person regularly, but don’t let updates about children’s football or the latest hike distract you from following through on any issues you have no matter how small. Your agenda should include:
If you find you are still not happy with your service review your contract and be sure you are expecting a fair outcome; we can have personal expectations that may not be explicit in the contract. If you are not receiving what they have contractually agreed to provide then escalate; everyone has a boss and part of their role is to resolve issues like this. It is likely they would rather you escalate than they lose you as a customer when renewal time comes around so escalating is doing the fair thing by everyone. If you are still unable to resolve you issues you may need to bring in support from others in your organisation; you may also wish to check when the contract expires and get prepared to go to market to review your options. Overall, the key point is to remember you are paying for a service they have offered to provide; keep pushing for problems to be resolved and keep talking to each other. If you would like any help with any aspect of contract review, management or market options please get in touch with us at Resolution8 Digital Advisory. We don’t partner with any service providers so we can give you the best result for your organisation. Our team are very experienced in contract management and can take on the whole process or coach you through it to build you professional skills. |
AUTHORS.
Peter Gilbert is the Director of Resolution8 and has a passion for good project delivery. ARCHIVES.
October 2024
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