When a company gets to a place where it needs to transform its business and/or the technology that supports it, it’s not at all uncommon that as the leadership teams looks at themselves and other key employees they quickly realize they don’t have anyone who has undergone that kind of massive change program before.

Sometimes they are at a loss at where to start. Sometimes they get underway and realize they are in over their heads. The complexity of these programs can be overwhelming and even the most skilled CIOs, architects, systems analysts, technical resources and project managers miss some of the most common issues caused by lack of communication, failures in organization and loss of control over aspects of the program run by third parties.

Furthermore, change is disruptive. Right from the very beginning as the ideas and strategies for your transformation efforts are being discussed and reviewed, the leadership team gets distracted and is no longer 100% devoted to today’s business.

How do you minimize that distraction? How do you ensure that your leadership team and your most productive employees aren’t pulled away in a manner that causes business disruption?

When you start implementing new technology and strategic transformation initiatives how do you ensure that changes in systems, data, processes and organization aren’t wreaking havoc on your current business? How do you avoid major support issues? Hiccups in billing? Or even disruption in service?