Ambit’s Collaborative Innovation Management Detailed

in FedTech Magazine

Reston, VA – August 30, 2007 – Ambit Group, LLC (Ambit), a Reston-based consulting firm, demonstrates thought leadership in collaborative and innovative management approaches in its work with the federal IT community. Ambit VP Chris Durney and long-time Ambit client and Associate CIO for Information and Technology Management at USDA, Chris Niedermayer, recently co-authored a piece titled “Three Rules to Get and Keep Buy-In” for the August edition of FedTech magazine. In the opinion article, Durney and Niedermayer talk about tackling the difficult task of getting major IT projects effectively implemented across various levels of an organization.

Durney and Niedermayer write that IT projects present all the challenges normally associated with any significant organizational innovation. By building a collaborative appreciation of the value of the project among all stakeholders involved, and by managing the project with transparency in terms of cost, schedule, and scope, IT managers can enhance the possibility of long-term success for their projects.

“Getting anything new accepted as part of the organizational fabric is no small feat for an organization, federal or otherwise,” said Durney. “And new IT systems and technologies are no exception to the rule.”

Durney noted that, as ACIO with responsibility for a range of enterprise IT innovations, Chris Niedermayer is a strong believer in the need to collaborate with all stakeholders to help them understand how the ‘new thing’ will benefit them.

“Each stakeholder’s understanding of the advantage that the new system or technology will provide over the current situation is the starting point for all real stakeholder buy-in,” said Durney.

The article can be viewed in its entirety online at: http://www.fedtechmagazine.com/article.asp?item_id=341