The big chill

No matter what state of preparedness exists, companies everywhere arem. What does this mean for your client companies and how you sell into them? making their plans for a millennium change freeze. The freeze is a logical response to the threat of Y2K. Reducing risk by preventing any more is the name of the game.

The freeze is likely to last for three months in most organisations, though some have quoted less and others have no plans. Some large organisations are even implementing six-month freeze programmes, covering the three months either side of the year end. For companies which have very busy year-end workloads it may only be a tightening of existing change regulations. But for the majority, this is a unique event.

It is important for those working in IT sales and marketing roles not only to appreciate what effect this unique event will have on their customers, but also, by implication, to understand what may well happen to their own day-to-day activities.

What happens to your clients?

Having frozen developments and implementations, something really unusual is about to happen to your clients. After years of breakneck speed, long nights and longer days, these IT departments will, for the first time in a long while, have the opportunity to attend to other things.

Consolidation, rationalisation, housekeeping and other general administration functions, which are frequently undertaken in the background or even shelved for 'a later date', are now being included in plans for the change freeze period. While these may be laudable and, some would say, essential activities, focusing on them for a sustained but relatively short period of time could provide managers with some major resourcing issues.

Both the freeze and changing work patterns could have a significant impact on staff, suppliers and third parties. Three months is a long time to keep highly skilled - and expensive - permanent staff, contractors and consultants employed when the activities they are asked to focus on may not be relevant to their skill-sets or interests. While it may seem an easy decision to let contract and consulting staff go, projects rely heavily on the knowledge and continuity of people working on them.

Suppliers which rely upon steady streams of continuous orders for their survival may find orders lapsing for the change freeze period. Without a sizeable forward order book or healthy cash position, smaller companies may well be put under considerable financial pressure. Support contracts and supplier contacts could easily suffer.

Smart companies will implement a policy and plan should be produced to mitigate the effect of staffing issues (see table, right) for the months of the freeze. The success of this plan will depend on identifying and then resourcing projects and activities which will benefit the organisation, and retaining key personnel who may be needed again when postponed project work starts again.

How should you respond?

Looking first at the resources issue, this is a key area for sales personnel in particular. Many contractors within organisations are working at a relatively high level and have considerable purchasing power. If they are likely to be moving on, either of their own accord or at the behest of their client, it is important for the sales professional to start building relationships with other hopefully more permanent members of staff.

If there is just a single point of contact within the client organisation and that person is a contractor, the impending freeze makes this a very vulnerable position to be in.

The same approach must also be taken for those permanent employees who have a very specific role within the company.

The message is the same: widen your range of company contacts as soon as possible to secure your future business. The silver lining, of course, is that it is equally important to maintain contact with those contractors with whom a relationship has already been built - because undoubtedly they will reappear, as likely as not working for a potential new client for your sales skills.

It is likely that some supply companies, particularly the smaller ones, may not even survive the freeze period. Any organisation faced with this potential threat must encourage its sales and marketing staff to be as creative and flexible as possible in their approach to sales during this period.

It may be possible to sell services rather than relying purely on product sales; perhaps hardware orders can be taken now for delivery post-freeze; for those companies selling development tools or services, it may be possible to secure work that may normally be done in-house by the client under an outsourcing contract, thus maintaining the integrity of their year 2000 systems compliance.

Using offsite facilities to test, develop or model using millennium compliant, post-dated equipment may be useful. Alternatively, it may be possible to lease out space with equipment already 'in' the 21st century, allowing organisations to test and develop without the fear that it will impact on their own systems.

For the marketing department, this is an ideal time to slant campaigns towards retaining the client's interest, to promote service rather than product - and to be as creative as possible!

IT department freezes over

In order to refine your approach over the 'freeze period', it is worth identifying the main areas that customers in IT functions are likely to be working on, and impressing them with your knowledge!

For the IT department, the change freeze period is an almost unrepeatable opportunity for it to undertake activities which have been on the back burner, which are necessary but not essential.

By undertaking these types of project, organisations will be able to refine and enhance the control they have on their existing infrastructures, processes and objectives. Key areas within IT that might be addressed by your customers during the freeze are:

- Strategic direction

- Housekeeping

- Measurement and control

- Consolidation

- Business continuity

- Testing

Although there is little opportunity for closing deals here, good account handling skills should ensure that, after the buffering of the millennium winter, the post-modern spring will be lush, green and growing. So get the overcoats out, sit round the campfire, tell a few stories and wait for the thaw!

Steve Dalton is senior consultant at leading IT and telecommunications consultancy Commslogic Ltd.

Tel: 01252 776 776.

Email: Info@commslogic.co.uk

STAFFING ISSUES

PEOPLE - Permanent staff

IMPACT - Medium

EFFECT - Loss of interest. Boredom. Most can be used on other projects

PEOPLE - Contractors

IMPACT - High

EFFECT - May be difficult to justify keeping contractors on. If they are kept, then they may not be the right people to do the work planned for the period. If they are the right people, will they stay to under-take activities they were not employed to do?

PEOPLE - Consultants

IMPACT - High

EFFECT - Consultant fees are high, yet so are their skills. If they are not retained, then their availability when the projects restart may well be in question

PEOPLE - Suppliers

IMPACT - Medium

EFFECT - Small suppliers may not survive the freeze, let alone the millennium. Are the suppliers able to withstand long-term reduction in business?

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