The challenge facing the IT
department is not just to transform its own culture into one that acts
like a business, but also to develop meaningful dialog with the
business side, and influence with the entire Chief Officer suite.
In
sympathy with the task, it can be said in passing that IT’s challenge –
listening to and solving the problems of its “customers” the
stakeholders in the enterprise – has not yet been mastered by those
“customers” themselves in their dealings with the real-world customers
of the typical corporation.
The business of running a
company is complex, and difficult. Executives will not willingly
undertake an effort they perceive as blind risk. Much of the time what
is perceived as resistance to change is simply requiring the right tools to move forward successfully.
“One of the key values behind an Enterprise Decision
Management approach is that of managing decisions as a corporate asset.
When customers interact with you they consider every decision you take
to be a corporate one – that is, a deliberate one. Thus if your
website, your call center or your agents make a poor decision, an
inconsistent decision or an out of date decision, it reflects on your
whole organization. Yet, every day you must make decisions faster,
across more channels and product lines.” – Managing decisions as a corporate asset
Yet beyond this, the decision-making layer
can also be dysfunctional in terms of effective process: internal
communication can often be sparse or in the extreme non-existent.
“the problem lies in departments with conflicting
motivations and targets, incompatible processes and individuals feeling
that they can’t change things. Throw in some business process
outsourcing, a general unwillingness to carry the can and changing
business practices – and you have a recipe for the unconnected
enterprise.” – Why Don’t We Talk Anymore?
IT’s goal is to enable the CIO or CTO to bring maximum intelligence, reasoning, and planning to the table, in packages that speak to business issues in their own terms.
So,
as IT reshapes its own processes for decision-making, portfolio
management, and forward-thinking brainstorming, it must also begin to
learn how the top layer thinks, decides, and acts – and what it wants.
The greatest help here will come from the free flow of information
through the management layers.
Modern Web 2.0 social media
for collaboration and knowledge sharing – tools such as collaboration
studios, wikis, discussion boards, messaging systems, and blogs – are
the tools that encourage knowledge to rise to the surface. Accurate
knowledge of the enterprise is IT’s greatest lever to manage its own
future, and to contribute survival positioning to the company.
The Economist has found that a majority of CEOs are enthusiastic for Web 2.0 tools, but McKinsey finds that implementation plans are lukewarm.
“A decade ago, the IT department drove investments in
most new technologies. Now, these tools are just as likely to bubble up
from other departments. ‘Corporate strategy can define technology
strategy,’ says Bughin.” – Executives Remain Wary of Web 2.0
This is the great danger perceived in the coming of Enterprise 2.0:
that it will overwhelm IT’s security and orderly planning because, from
the small footprints of the new tools, technology adoption is becoming
decentralized. The enterprise, without IT’s energetic sponsorship of
Enterprise 2.0, could fragment into knowledge chaos, or else rewire the
entire company circumventing IT.
IT should begin developing strategies for implementing internal social media systems.
No one is better positioned than IT to free the flow of communication
within its organization. The failure to act may render IT irrelevant,
and the rewards are everything.
