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Does IT matter ? : Impressions and Implications for Organizational Excellence
Dr S G Deshmukh
DirectorABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior
Key note speech atNational Conference on
Mapping for Excellence: Challenges Ahead
Pioneer Institute of Professional Studies , Indore16 Feb 2009
Speaking points of my keynote
1. Organizational excellence
2. Dimensions of Technology
3. e-business & its advantages
4. The Commoditization of IT
5. Role of IT
6. Various impressions for Organizational excellence and its Implications
7. Endthoughts
Motivation IT has become all pervading in almost
every walk of life
Lot of debate on use/utility of IT Historically a thought provoking article by Nicholas
Carr in Harvard Business Review (May 2003) and a series of articles and books thereafter (N Carr, Does IT Matter, HBR, May 2003)
Relevance of IT for organizational excellence?
3
Organizational excellence
Organizational Excellence is a final product composed of two basic elements alloyed prudently by the members/stakeholders of an organization. These two basic elements are “Strategy” and “Culture”. Quality practices bring all stakeholders together
Quality practices focus on processes
Quality is a journey, there are no successes or failures, just learning experiences.
What is the Role of IT ?
4
Dimensions of Information Technology Smart
Fast
Small & slick
Affordable
Convenient
Flexible
Friendly
Accessible
Connectivity
Culturally acceptable, economically feasible and technologically accessible !
All pervading IT
Internet
Mobile
Multi-Media
Notebook
Ipod,MP3,PMP, and other gadgets
Railway reservation system
MyTrip, amazon.com, ebay.com, shaadi.com, naukari.com, YouTube
Social /professional networks: Orkut, MySpace,Facebook, Hi5,Linkedlin
6
Characteristics of IT
Ubiquitous
Mobility
Lighter and Smaller
High speed
Smartness
Multiple functions
Mix with Non-IT applications
IT is making world flatter ! Outsourcing dominated paradigm
Team work and leadership assumes new meaning
Geography has become history: Time and distance are no longer the important variables
Mobile dense and multimedia rich environment has accelerated digital environment.
Connectivity has made the global village possible
Working on-line, flexi-time, tele/videoconferencing, spiral career paths, continuous learning and global competition are changing the traditional notions of how work gets done.
Internet is changing the way we communicate with –suppliers, customers, potential and current employees by way of 2-way communications !
SMS driven communication
• Competitive World
• Customers demand More
– High Quality, Low Price, Flexibility and what not !
• IT age
– Unpredictable
– New Media
– New Methodologies
Typical Business Scenario
A list of terms prefixed by ‘e-’
e-commerce
e-business
e-marketing
e-procurement
e-logistics
e-health
e-retailer
e-finance
e-banking
e-recruiting
e-service
e-crm
e-procurement
e-strategy
Tangible BenefitsIncreased sales from new sales leads giving rise to increased revenue from
new customers, new markets
existing customers (repeat-selling), existing customers (cross-selling)
Marketing cost reduction from
reduced time in customer service
online sales,reduced printing and distribution costs of marketing communications
Supply chain cost reductions from
reduced levels of inventory
increased competition from suppliers, shorter cycle time in ordering
Administration cost reductions from
more efficient routine business processes such as recruitment, invoice payment, holiday authorisation etc
IT and Organizational Excellence
IT for streamlining of various business functions
IT for quality management
IT for waste reduction
IT for managing human resource
IT for listening to the voice of customer
IT for K-sharing
12
IT doesn’t matter ?
IT became backbone of business.
Over $2 trillion a year spent on IT worldwide despite the out sourcing cry and dot com bust scene.
IT was seen as proletarian tool-calculators only.
Source:
IT doesn’t matter:http://www.nicholasgcarr.com/articles/matter.html
Impression: IT capability
Because of its ability to record every customer interaction,
Ability to offer insights into customer and market behavior,
Turn a business into a scientific laboratory for pre and post-production and manufacturing purposes
Its potential to re-invent the business itself
IT’s proximity to decision making 14
IT Capability..
How IT is used rather that what of IT is used for achieving organizational excellence
IT fundamentally offers three capabilities to businesses:
Infrastructure,
Integration and
Interactivity
These capabilities have to be managed effectively for business
15
Implications : for Organizational Excellence
Infrastructure (relevant to Strategy)
Integration (relevant to Culture)
Interactivity (relevant to Strategy)
Management (affecting both strategy & culture)
These capabilities are to be effectively managed for organizational excellence
16
Implication 1: Infrastructure
IT as a part of infrastructure (Network(LAN/WAN), Data centre etc.)
Investment and choice of such infrastructure
It affects strategy
Enables connectivity and makes processes streamlined
Role of Management: Capital outlay, proper choice of IT, enabling the organizational structure
From Bahu(Buy all Hardware & Utilities) to
Saas(Software as a Service)
17
Implication 2: Integration Enables powerful integration of various
business functions : Marketing, Operations, Design , Finance (Example: ERP based systems)
Integrates both internal and external functions thereby avoids duplication and unnecessary wastage
Empowers suppliers and customers to become part of the extended enterprise
18
Observation..
“..Ordinary people now have access to technology, where they can create value and even collaborate and level the playing field with the world’s mightiest enterprises ..
Anthony Williams, “ Wikinomics: How Mass collaboration Changes Everything”, 2007
19
Insight..
Web 2.0 takes some of its philosophical underpinning from James Surowiecki's book “The Wisdom of Crowds”, which asserts that the aggregated insights of large groups of diverse people can provide better answers and innovations than individual experts.
20
Comment.. If infrastructure is for connectivity -- akin to railroad,
Integration is about integrating functionalities of various systems and applications even people; in a broad sense focused on integrating people, processes and technology in an enterprise setting.
Role of Management: Enables effective integration, provide necessary eco-system for integration resulting in organizational excellence
21
Implication 3: Interactivity
Interactivity (WAP, Web Services, XML) being more recent in the IT evolution
Enables to understand customer better
Establishes long term relationships with both customer and suppliers
Helps in understanding product features and add-ons by close interaction
Feedback through blogging (example: AB, SRK, Lalu Prasad Yadav) 22
Implication for Management: Connectivity !
Communication is anytime, anywhere via any device : Person-to-person, person-to-machine, machine-to-machine
Connecting to Information sources Connecting to Change Connecting to an ever-changing , far reaching
universe Connecting to new issues and trends Connecting to diverse resources Connecting to talent pipeline Connecting to different ways of thinking Connecting to unexpected allies
Implication..
Ever since the Internet brought down the cost of connectivity, the need for integration (be it application integration, b2b integration or data integration) has been growing
So also interactivity needs of enterprises particularly dealing with bringing in pervasive functionalities as in enterprise mobility, personalization and so on. This enables in achieving excellence
24
Observation..
IT is inherently strategic because of its indirect effects
It creates possibilities and options that did not exist before
Companies that see, and act on, these possibilities before others do will continue to excel themselves in the marketplace and reap economic rewards
25
Insight..
IT may become ubiquitous, but the insight required to harness its potential will not be so evenly distributed Therein lies the opportunity for organizational excellence and significant strategic advantage
The manner in which iii are going to be Managed is the key !
26
IT initiatives for Excellence..
Datamining & Business Intelligence
K-sharing
Customer Relationship Management
Supplier Relationship Management
Enterprise Resource Planning
Etc..
Implementation of these
require careful
considerations on the
following IT capabilities:
Infrastructure
Integration
Interactivity
27
Initiative-Capability Matrix
IT Initiative Capability
Infrastructure Integration Interactivity
Data-mining & Business Intelligence
K-sharing Medium High Very High
SRM
CRM
ERP High High Medium
28
Strategy for Organizational Excellence
Active use of IT
Knowledge sharing
Talent Acquisition and management
Stress on continuous improvement
Listening to the voice of customer(internal or external)
29
Implications..
Leave the comfort zone of traditional management concepts
Letting controls go
Invest less money but more time
Recognize information needs and wants
Someone may be using YouTube for projecting incrimination evidence of human rights abuse worldwide.
End Thoughts Excellence : No excuse for waste and sloppiness, now that
IT is a dominant technology
Smart use of technology : Innovation and adaptability
IT does matter by offering capabilities
Infrastructure
Integration
Interactivity
Challenge : People dimension in using IT
Part of decision making
Sense of being “connected”
Feeling of “Global community”
