There are few things more terrifying than taking on an account 2 years into a stalled project with an upcoming renewal.
My customer had been the poster child for modern Windows management in its infancy. But now, two years later with no more than 1,000 devices under management, the poster was faded and covered in profanity.
The blocker wasn’t the technology – I knew that from a prior implementation at a large global food distributor. It worked very well, pushing policies and security updates with just an Internet connection. No need for the legacy on-premise requirements of legacy group-policy and SCCM.
The real problem was found in the usual location. The dark alleys of the long-time Windows systems administrators, echoing with the cry “we never did it that way before.”
We had executive alignment on the account and that was key in gaining insight into the key deliverable my client was looking for:
- 90% compliance with Windows patches within one month of patch release.
Once we had that locked in, it was easy to get engineering onboard. Within two months of my leading the account, our pilot group was exceeding 96% patch compliance only 4 weeks post release. It worked, and it worked even better than expected. With these numbers in hand, we moved quickly to rollout. Over the next few months our pilot grew from 1,000 to 10,000 and then eventually to their entire fleet of 120,000 devices. The execs and the leadership were ecstatic. When the renewal came due, they were thrilled to sign up for another 3 year contract. It felt like a huge win. But the win rang hollow.
The darkness from the alleys where the systems administrators lived began to grow, and discontent grew along with it. While we had the ears of the leaders and the execs, the day to day doers were frustrated and continued to drag their heels. Tasks they had done for decades in SCCM were totally different in our product. While leaders in the organization caught the vision for what we were doing, that never trickled down to the lowest levels. Without a champion to lead the charge and drag his colleagues through the messiness of transition the project eventually failed. The contract languished and the customer rolled back to “good old SCCM.”
The moral of the story: Executives are great to have onboard to drive and motivate change. But don’t overlook the fact that executives are NOT the ones who are responsible for implementation and ongoing maintenance. Do not minimize the importance of an individual contributor champion.