Transformation with and alignment of the IT – How to support the company goals? June 25, 2007
Posted by Jari Tavi in : Technology , trackback
This blog entry is more or less based on my totally different role to IT from what I usually represent. On the other hand, my key role is ensuring that our product portfolio is competitive and meets customer expectations. On the other hand that leads to a situation where my colleagues and I are one of the largest consumers of information within the company. This information includes a huge load of information from heterogeneous sources – more than 20 different sources. After 20 years in IT related business I must say that maintaining the product leadership and differentiation requires more manual labor and commitment from product owners than some other areas that have been recognized as strategic in every business, like the Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which is a strategic area of IT support probably in every international company today.
So why does this happen? Why some tactical and even strategic areas do not gain the visibility they should? My opinion, based on my experience from current and previous roles, is that the problem comes from the lack of visibility at executive level which on the other hand is mostly caused by the lack of alignment in between company strategy deployment and operational IT management. I feel that companies more or less lack pragmatic approach to identifying the gaps between operations and IT readiness. It seems like the typical approach is to identify “something” and then to “fix that permanently”.
Well, if this is not the way to go, what should be done then? In my opinion, companies should be proactive and identify the gaps and take a more pragmatic approach to identify the opportunities not only to save money, but to enable better visibility and opportunity for innovation. I feel that too often the only approaches are the savings opportunity or solving the bandwidth issues when the IT infra is being put in place to serve the business.
As a company, BasWare wants to sustain both the product and thought leadership and it requires visibility to the customer-driven product requirements and innovations in both product side but also in operational side – in other words, how to enable the 360° visibility, and through that, the continuous innovation. Even though I am talking here about the software development and product differentiation point of the view, the same is a matter of fact for all the other operations and processes as well.
IT needs to act and align with business – from reactive to proactive mode.
The perception is reality!