The CIO Dilemma: When The Franchisee Wants To Use Cousin Gino For Local Tech Support
Written by Todd L. MichaudSeptember 22nd, 2009
“I understand that your cousin Gino might be one of the best technology service providers in central New Jersey, but I’m just not sure if we can use him as part of this program.” One of the classic battles between franchisees and their chain’s CIO, argues Franchisee Columnist Todd Michaud, is the use of local support resources. When it comes to technology providers, most franchisees “have a guy that can do this better, faster, cheaper” than anything that is designed at a national level.
It’s a compelling argument. There is a lot to be said for smaller companies that are hungry and constantly go the extra mile. But there's a reason why national chain CIOs do—and must—often resist.
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2 Comments | Read The CIO Dilemma: When The Franchisee Wants To Use Cousin Gino For Local Tech Support
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
September 24th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Organize a franchise steering committe to help set direction on IT and IT support. Franchisees have a lot of passion for IT support costs so it’s best to leverage their energy. Up front it will take longer, but in the long run consensus will speed things up and help keep the noise down.
Gene
ex-CIO McDonald’s Canada
September 24th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I agree with Gene here, but just make sure there’s solid corporate guidance to manage and funnel the input from the franchisees so it doesn’t get out of control.
A small POS provider can surely provide a much more “human” level of support to a franchisee, however, they may have trouble conforming to a larger organizations internal structure and bureaucracy compared to a larger POS provider.