Getting Value From IT
The question that any technology
manager in any corporate organization
fears most from his/her boss is “so,
what good has these your computers
and stuff brought to this company?”
Highly capable technology leaders have been turned into
stammers when faced with this blow. But really the answer
to the question is quite simple and straightforward. Its an issue
of business value and how information technology enhances
it.
How can we identify business value? In my opinion, business
value can be quantified by any activity or business process that
directly impacts positively on organizational objectives.
True value can be found within three areas of business activity
- operational efficiency, customer experience and product development.
Operational efficiency seems to be the first area that is
automated or so they say. This area covers activities like
financial management and reporting, internal communications,
stock management and supplier relations. Most organizations
invariably acquired technology solutions for accounting and other
management areas (HR, Stock control, payroll) for starters, but
these applications just added value in the management of internal
operations and resources. No direct impact on overall objectives.
So what type of applications brings business value in the area
of operational efficiency? Decision support systems (DSS) or the
currently used sexier name, Business intelligence. DSS compile
useful information from raw data, documents, personal knowledge,
and/or business models to identify and solve problems and
make decisions. It enables management to make quicker decisions
with far reaching impact. It this increasingly tough global
business environment, the ability to take quicker decisions with
significantly greater accuracy is critical in achieving that edge
of the competition. This is one of the ideal demonstrations of business
value.
The whole objective of any business is to sell a product or service
to a customer. Hence, the saying, the Customer is king. How the
customer feels in the course and aftermath of buying the product
or service will determine if the customer stays with you or moves
to a competitor. Customer experience is critical to the bottomline.
Any use of technology here will bring real business value,
and Customer Relationship Management applications (CRM)
have been the rage of the business community for some years
now. It separates serious companies from the ones who are just
wasting everyone’s time. It will take a whole day to extol all the
virtues of CRM. Any business organisation using CRM technology
is really getting business value from IT.
In this dynamic market environment where customer needs and
requirements keep evolving, the company that harnesses technology
to enhance its ability in coming out with new products
and services very quickly has a clear competitive edge. Companies
acquire applications for their core business. These applications
are normally customized to how the company does
its business, aligned to its products and services. If the effort in
coming out with new products is an arduous task, in that the developer
has to be brought in to customize etc then business value
is not being derived from the application. Management will always
think twice before embarking on new products because of the
cost involved. The process of developing new products should
be simple and the technology must facilitate it with the minimum
of fuss.
So if management has approved the acquisition of some of the
above mentioned technologies then they are focused on getting
value from their IT infrastructure, and the undervalued technology
manager can cease stammering and answer with gusto that yea,
the organisation is using IT well.
By CK Bruce
C.K Bruce is the Chief Executive Officer of Innovare.Bruce has many years of experience
in Information Security Management; implementation
public sector technology delivery
and IT project management.
To comment on
his article send an email to: expert@techgov.gh
