Cutover Time - Your Super Bowl Moment

It might seem an odd thing to do, but I spend a lot of time thinking about business and technology cutovers. I have my reasons... as they are central to the success of our implementation or cutover planning solution, ICEFLO.

Sports speak a language of their own that can be translated seamlessly from one sporting context to another. In the same way that technology cutovers can be translated from one industry to another.

Whilst flicking through the sports channels on Sunday night, it struck me that there are a lot of common themes across several sports, e.g. last round of a golf major, 5th set of a tennis final, Champions League Final, Super Bowl, etc. Pretty soon, I was brainstorming the parallels between sports and cutover change events:

• They represent the culmination of months or even years of effort by teams of people - even in "individual sports" where no-one achieves success on their own
• They are often tense and nervous occasions with a lot riding on the outcome - both personal and professional
• The day itself can fly by in a blur of activity, with highs and lows, surprises and thrills
• Success depends on how well the team performs in these critical hours - with effective collaboration a "must" to overcome the challenges faced
• Preparation and planning are critical - "train hard, win easily" being a great way to think of these critical events
• No matter how well you prepare, something will crop up that will throw you off plan. How well you react will determine whether you succeed or not.

Sports analogies are common in business, and sometimes they are stretched too far. But the Super Bowl is big and can serve as a great business metaphor. It has more in common with customer service and support than you might think. At ICEFLO, we focus on 3 key aspects of delivering complex technology change:

1. Capture the Past...
And learn from it to increase everyone's confidence on the big day.

2. Observe the Present...
And share it widely in real-time; react quickly and effectively to events as they unfold.

3. Respond to influence the Future...
And make better, safer decisions based on insight and facts rather than relying on instinct.

Our consultants are busy everyday helping our customers use ICEFLO to plan, rehearse and run these major technology implementations. We have a team who spend every day designing, developing and testing our cloud-based cutover tool, ICEFLO.

Cutovers is what we do. We've built ICEFLO from the ground up to meet head-on the challenges that are faced when it comes to your last round of the Majors, your World Cup final, your Super Bowl, your Wimbledon final.