Simplification Isn’t About Spending Less

Have you noticed how simplification sometimes gets mistaken for cost cutting? The assumption is that fewer tools, fewer systems or fewer suppliers must mean somebody is trying to reduce the budget.

But really, most of the time, simplification is about making the environment easier to support. You can have two platforms doing similar jobs, and both might be good products. The question is whether supporting both still makes sense a few years after they were introduced.

The same applies to processes. It’s surprising how many exist simply because they solved a problem at the time. Years later, the business has changed, the technology has moved on, but the process is still there because nobody had a reason to question it.

The environment reflects years of sensible decisions made at different points in time. Each one made sense on its own, but together they can create a level of complexity that nobody really set out to build. One day you step back and realize how much effort goes into supporting things that no longer add the value they once did.

Those moments are worthwhile, because they help you understand where complexity has built up. Sometimes the answer is leaving everything exactly as it is. Sometimes it’s consolidating two platforms into one or retiring something that nobody has depended on for quite a while.

And the outcome isn’t always lower spend. Often, it’s fewer moving parts. Projects become simpler because there are fewer dependencies to think about. New starters have less to learn. Day-to-day support becomes more straightforward because there are fewer systems competing for attention.

But finding time to look at the environment through that lens isn’t easy. It’s not as pressing as the work sitting in today’s inbox. So it becomes something you’ll look at when things calm down a little. And we know how often that happens.

That’s where co-managed support can make a real difference. Sharing more of the operational workload creates opportunities to review the environment with fresh eyes and decide where complexity has crept in.

If you’d like to explore how co-managed support could create more time for work like this, I’d be happy to talk. Get in touch.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.