Common Sense IT

Leveraging Technology for Business Bang!

When I think about the opportunities that exist today for businesses to really leverage technology for true business benefit, and then think about IT departments and the experience that the business has dealing with their IT departments, we've made very little progress in having internal IT departments really be an extension of the business, that enables and enhances the businesses ability to fulfill on their mission and objectives.

I just came across a Forrester Research report from April of this year, entitled,"IT and Business Alignment:  Are We There Yet?"  by Craig Symons.

My reaction to that whitepaper was one of irritation.  Craig's solution is measure, measure, measure -- and yes, while Information Technology and systems need to be measured, the suggestions for measurement that include "the number of joint IT/business unit planning meetings or the number of IT steering committee meetings", because "Holding frequent meetings between IT managers and business unit managers will bring more opportunities to the surface and solidify a comfort level", fail to have me understand how there will be better alignment  at all.  It's like saying, "let's form a committee to address this" -- and we all know our reaction to that statement -- and it isn't that things will move forward easily and smoothly, or be more effective.

George Eby Mathew , in his blog called "Guruspeak: Why IT Management Matters", posted a topic in June of this year, Getting Beyond the Futile Debate: Making IT matter, and I've summarized a few key items from that post:

1. “Not long ago, IT systems were viewed as the most difficult element to change when implementing large, strategic projects. IT is sometimes viewed as the most difficult to change rated equally with corporate culture. And from the perspective of the senior management IT gets in the way of getting important things done.”   In my experience, one of the big problems with IT folks is that they love to analyze a problem to death -- and then apply the textbook perfect solution -- except that in reality - it is the source of failed projects!   Don't get me wrong, the antithesis is also true --  where IT  doesn't do the thinking, and slaps a system into place that creates more problems than it solves in the name of being "responsive" and "giving the business what they need."
2. “Technology must enable changes to achieve either business-valued cost reductions or revenue-enhancement results to matter. We know IT does add value because poor IT decisions can detract from equity value while good IT decisions can add to equity value.”  Exactly. 

The issue facing IT and the business it supports is a thorny one.  For as long as I can remember, business people have an adverse reaction when IT is mentioned, like they don't and won't ever understand technology, and the IT department oftentimes has an arrogant attitude about how technology "ought" to be delivered to the business.

What's needed are business people who understand the ways that technology can benefit their business and can challenge IT to provide what they need.

What's needed are CIO's that understand the business as well as technology AND can cultivate people in their IT groups that can actually identify the real "problem" that needs to be addressed -- which many times is different from what the business will say is the problem -- so you've got to be two-headed about it -- serve the business users, and deliver what they need (not necessarily what they say they need) -- and you know you've done this when they are delighted by what they get and it makes their job easier.

Finally, there needs to be some common sense applied to how technology is selected and delivered, so that the business doesn't wait forever for IT to deliver what it needs.

And quite possibly, IT could leverage outside expertise much more effectively, and reduce the backlog that frustrates their business counterparts.  While written from a marketing perspective, a recent post at the Marketing Interactions  blog, entitled Effective Marketing IT Projects with Limited Expertise addresses this from a business user perspective, and introduces what is possible.

What's your experience with leveraging technology effectively -- and working with your IT groups?

Part 5: Four Steps to ensuring marketing and brand consistency across sales and channel partners

Automate Redundant Processes -- the rewards of effectively using technology

With this technology in place (see previous posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4), the company gathered feedback on what was working. One of the biggest improvements the sales team acknowledged was centralized information and access to the right tools. They reported saving eight hours a week by not entering information in multiple places or having to search for what they needed.

Rolling this out to channel partners was another challenge. Prior to the centralized system, channel partners’ plans for each fiscal year were tracked manually in Word documents. They remained static and allowed the channel management team limited visibility into deals in progress.

This changed when the partner extranet was adopted and the business planning process became an interactive tool that both the partner and the channel team could access.  Updates now happen dynamically as the year progresses. And because there is now visibility into channel activities, sales and marketing can provide useful, directed information to help partners close sales.

In the end, the technology exists to power sites with real-time updating, administration that makes life easier for your personnel, and tools to help sales and channel partners shrink sales cycles and close more deals.  Any website can push, stack, or list information, but the portal that puts the right information at sales’ fingertips when they need it is ultimately the key to a unified brand. 

CRM - The On Demand or On Premise Question

Much has been written about CRM On Demand versus the traditional CRM packaged applications that are hosted on your own servers.  The arguments are really about using On Demand (hosted externally) or On Premise (hosted within your data center), and how to think about that -- not just for CRM, but for any On Demand option you might consider.

In a recent post to the CRM blog written by David Cowgill, he takes a look at the growing pains faced by CRM On Demand applications. 

Points that stick out are:

1. Don't think of On Demand vs. On Premise as mutually exclusive.  Instead think about where you want to focus your in-house IT expertise.  Do you get the biggest competitive leverage by using your IT resources to manage and/or own the functionality?   Remember that CRM and related application funcitonality is pretty standard -- but how you use it and employ it in your organization is going to be the competitive leverage that will impact sales effectiveness. 
2. How reliable have your IT folks been at delivering results on time and on budget?  Check out the reliability and track record of the On Demand vendor you are thinking about using -- as pointed out in Cowgill's post, "For most corporate executives, its chief appeal is being able to pay someone else to run and maintain the system."   Understand that you no longer have to be held hostage by an IT group that isn't responsive to your needs.
3. While David cites integration as a big hurdle - put the idea/notion of web services (also known as service oriented architecture) into your thinking, and in a nutshell recognize that with current technology it is possible to effectively integrate an on-demand application with an in-house application securely and effectively, and all On Demand vendors worth their salt will have these sorts of options available.

In summary, it's important to understand that On Demand options are available and very viable for functionality that at it's core doesn't require your investment in intellectual capital to maintain and support -- because  you won't get the bang for your buck there.  Use your valuable intellectual capital for those functions and systems that provide you with competitive advantage.

One of the chief benefits of On Demand software is "faster deployment, lower up-front costs and reduced in-house support and maintenance requirements."   

I'd love to hear your experiences and things you've considered when weighing the options of On Demand or On Premise applications deployment and utilization!  Post a comment.

Part 1: Four Steps to ensuring marketing and brand consistency across sales and channel partners

Marketing operations is the “final frontier” for the explosion in business process efficiencies driven by technology, according to an article that quotes AMR research.  That article was published in 2003, and here we are in 2005 with the same state of affairs -- it might as well have been posted this month.  What is it that isn't communicating or being understood?  Post a comment, let's take a look.   

Internet technology is one of the most powerful tools for ensuring brand consistency, however, beyond CRM, companies seldom prioritize information technology as mission critical for marketing and sales. This may be due to the fast pace of marketing and sales and its individual nature, which make it difficult for marketing and sales organizations to fully take advantage of.

Ensuring brand consistency across all marketing and sales channels isn’t just about logo placement or font type. Branding encompasses all the conversations that describe your product and company. This includes reaching target audiences with the messages that communicate distinctly to them, and coordinating across product lines and sales channels to ensure that these messages, including look and feel, are presented in a manner consistent with the brand.

In today’s reality, achieving this level of marketing effectiveness means employing technology to connect, communicate, collaborate, and entertain whatever audience you are targeting. Two groups with the biggest impact on how you reach these audiences are your sales department and channel partners who directly promote your brand. Inaccurate marketing materials can lead to misunderstanding of a product or line but more commonly it just means missed sales.

But don’t despair, getting on track is not impossible. In a series of posts, we are going to explore the four steps that can help your company align its branding and ensure marketing consistentency.

1. Expose the existing culture – Determine whether your sales people suffer from your technology or are empowered by it.
2. Market in-house – Use the power of your marketing department to enroll and empower your sales and channel partners on the effectiveness of the messages.
3. Create trust –Give sales the tools they need and offer incentives to use them.
4. Automate redundant processes

I invite you to play with these ideas, and provide your own thinking and insights -- have the ideas make sense -- common sense!