Synergise IT

I have heard about this term too many times and know what its about on the surface. On Friday, I had a conversation with Michael and he was explaining to me how social graph and resource management can be implemented hand in hand.

After reading Dion Hinchcliffe post on - The Social Graph: Issues and Strategies in 2008, I am convinced the social graph is a great tool to improve the efficiency of an IT consulting firm. Let me explain.

IT consulting firms relies greatly on good resource management - delivering the correct resource to the right place at the right time. Traditionally, this is done by the senior management and also the HR team where they control staff movement across projects and geographical locations. This is hard work as to the HR team, staff members is just another name, another resume, another head they can stick into a project to earn money. Feedback is seldom received from staff members until the news is broken to them.

For resource management to work well, a collaborative effort must be used. Employee / project managers should actively plan their schedule ahead, look for projects that interest them, use the social graph to get in contact with the relevant project managers or use it to get in contact with other resources on the team to find out more. With this approach, there will be less work for the HR team, less headache for the management team and achieve greater efficiency across the organisation.

I am not saying that the social graph is the answer to great resource management, but I am saying its one of the required tools to create a great resource management process. It helps to link people up and allow people connect to each other and allowing them to search for a project that they are interested in and capable of doing. A excellent resource management tool is a strategic tool and not just a back end process.