Informative & Invaluable IT

IT allows business departments, stakeholders, and executives clearly see what is happening in the business.

Though IT becomes so ubiquitous and omnipotent in organizations today, it is not an easy job to articulate IT value in business language precisely, and these are good things to have when trying to express clearly and confidently what IT actually does for a company:

1. Keep the Lights On:  It’s basic but crucial, just imagine what wouldn't work if the whole IT system has been shut down in the company, and management realizes immediately how important the IT is for the company. Analyzing any single company process in a matrix where you connect the process with the IT infrastructure or application used by that process is helpful to clarify the IT criticality as competitive necessities. 

2. Horizontal View of Business for Effectiveness & Efficiency: IT is at unique position to provide horizontal view of the business and its capacities;  fill in the white space on the corporate organization chart, break down the traditional silos, and have the opportunity to help companies operate with significantly more efficiency and effectiveness than they otherwise could. 

3. Cultivate Business Capabilities: How the technologies/systems enable efficient client/prospect development, enable the design and construction of products and services, automate processes to talent management, procure-to-pay, etc., IT is a key enabler for a set of capabilities business need have in order to compete for the future. Such as:  

Transparency
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Agility
Digital Capability
Innovation Capability
Flexibility 

Scalability
Monitoring and Control

4. Business Transformation – IT should be part of the overall corporate strategy to accomplish the enterprise’s business objectives. When the corporate objectives are identified, IT should offer the application of technology solutions to contribute to the accomplishment of the goals. IT is the catalyst to harness and innovate, The board should know what they want to do, but may not well know how the constantly improving technology available might help them achieve the strategic goals, cheaper/quicker/better and thereby help business differentiate themselves from the competition. 

5. Information-Driven Decision Making: The value of IT is providing the right information on demand to make or arrive at a strategic business decision. The information provided should be accurate, precise and relevant so that decision-making process is more successful. IT enables a complete “decision quality management” (DQM) life-cycle, also known as the ‘IT OODA’ Loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. IT is the lifeblood to make this decision life-cycle (OODA loop) possible. 

6. Information Governance: More importantly, IT can use technology to address ROI - Risk of Incarceration. In today's world, Information Governance issues are rising to the top. Executives need to ensure that their information is accurate and auditable. Enterprise Content Management solutions are properly designed for the specific company/industry/culture and implemented to bring huge value. 
       
7. Increased Productivity - How has technology increased the company’s productivity over the past "x" time frame? Easy of training (a new person starts and technology should make it easy for the trainee to get quickly up to speed). Simplified Reporting., etc. This includes all aspects of the company, data center, logistics, application throughput, etc.. 

8. Business Process Improvement and Standardization (where possible) and master data harmonization, through both, leveraging industry best practices and identifying/ implementing innovative process specific to the business, which will increase efficiency, competitiveness, and profitability. The benefit of IT is reducing the TCO (total cost of ownership) as it reduces a lot of redundancy in the business process which ultimately increases the customer satisfaction (internal and external). 

9. Innovation Driver: More critical than ever, businesses require I.T. to help drive revenue and business innovation (innovative products and/or services that the business can offer to clients to grow revenue). Senior executives are focused on company/business performance. Their number one metric for performance is revenue growth. Profitability/productivity, which I.T. has strong impacts on. Technology enables business in the business world today. In most cases, no technology equals no business. The intelligent application of technology produces the competitive edge. 

10. Visibility: Perhaps the biggest value adds from IT is VISIBILITY: IT allows business departments, stakeholders, and executive clearly see what is happening in the business. From producing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to generating reports, to publishing information on a centralized portal. Too many organizations focus on the T in IT which is Technology in the past, high performance IT should focus on the ‘I’ for Information. IT provides hindsight, insight, and foresight of business and overall business visibility

 

Posted in: CIO Debate,IT Performance Management,IT Transformation,Principle/Practice