how to tame the it monster

Taming the IT Monster

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

How does IT become a monster?

Oversold a big solution when less is more

Organisation design and/or structural issues

The buyer of the solution different from the user

Lack of interoperability

Lack of R&D

Office politics


Phase 1 - BUYING the system the key questions to make or break business...

User dictates the purchase not just the IT Manager

Has software been proven/tested with company systems?

Do you really need all of that?

Is the software the issue or is it the business?

Can you afford to wait 5 years and what is the likelihood of timely rollout?

Open source or interoperability capable?

Are all of the gadgets best breed?


Phase 1 - What should happenBuy or build an IT solution like an audiophile buys a stereo music system

Make sure to test it (or in this case listen to it before buying)

The audiophile system is purchased with separate components, offering best of class in each function, but also allowing each component to be upgraded or replaced over time. The upshot is not having to replace the whole system all at once. IT product and infrastructure should be no different, but note that it is not only about modularising systems and technology, but also processes as well.

Open Source

Modular

Interoperable

Upgradable

$2500 AUS

$2500 AUS

$1000 AUS

$950 AUS

$9000 AUS

$14000 AUS

$8000 AUS

$8000 AUS


...but buying a system won’t fix the business...

CRM got a bad name in the 1990s and beyond where software bought to cure problem by treating the symptoms and not the cause (process)

Millions of dollars thrown away

Strong management is not optional, it is required

Fix the organisation structure first and get the processes fixed up front to save money before software is purchased. Usability is emerging as key not just for sites, but for how products, processes and people integrate. Buy or set up solutions afterwards to maximise profit.


...as poor business management creates a monster


Phase 2 - Fixing the monster

Workarounds

APIs to the rescue

Business cases and taming the keeper of the beast

This is a case where the business has invested into a bloated and archaic system that requires years before any enhancements can be made. This is not uncommon in a variety of industries and often results from major CRM software vendors overselling enterprise solutions when clients do not need all of the features. Many development houses earn money developing workarounds to fix or bypass the original system.


How I fixed the monsterE-Mail platform


How to overcome politics

Identify operational or process based inefficiencies

Quantify payoff of alternative solutions

3-5 year plans... means how much money being lost per day?

Creative workarounds


When all else fails - fully outsource the monster

Covisint (Automotive supply chain management)

Worldwide Retail exchange (Retail supply chain management)

Human Genome Project (Scientific reference platform)

Alibaba

When the IT investment fails to deliver and it is time to move on. All of these examples show when outsourcing was done for the right reasons and businesses correctly identified when controlling the platform was far less important than attaining consistent deliverable results. In these cases, entire industries obtained remarkable efficiencies through cooperative development -- the social media concept done for B2B.


Buzzwords for 2009

Web 2.0 CRMBPM/CEMCloud Computing

• Web 2.0 technology and customer experience management are now taking a central role in the way companies look at CRM according to Gartner's Scott Nelson.

• A renewed focus on business process and CRM -- As the challenges associated with CRM have shifted from technology to processes, more and more CRM vendors are beginning to offer business process management (BPM) capabilities, merging CRM and BPM. According to Gartner, BPM is now the key to improving the customer experience

• Software implementations that don’t properly address business requirements are equal failures in both the cloud and on-premise worlds. Although cloud computing implementations may be faster and less expensive than corresponding on-premise deployments, wrong-headed software purchases are still…well, wrong. Michael Krigsman - ZDNET


http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid11_gci1330899,00.html

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid11_gci1330899,00.html

Cloud Computing

THE GOODOne company, Mashery, shared that they were able to build out their IT infrastructure to something like 1000 machines without a single system administrator! Moreover, the CEO indicated that they operated for two years on a total IT investment of less than US$100,000.

Sharethis (a social media company whose service can be integrated into other websites by merely embedding a button in the site), ...reported had been picked up by a very popular website and had to scale from something like 100 to 3500 machines in a single day. Using Amazon's EC2 service, that was achieved easily. The next day, when things had quieted down, they took down many of these instances. Total investment in meeting this transitory spike was less than US$200.

Cloud StatsCloud Computing Stats from Pew Internet and American Life Project

56% of internet users use webmail services such as Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo! Mail.34% store personal photos online.29% use online applications such as Google Documents or Adobe Photoshop Express.7% store personal videos online.5% pay to store computer files online.5% back up hard drive to an online site.

THE NOT SO GOOD“Fear over security and loss of control of data and systems is hindering adoption.”

Regulatory issues - cannot have your data mingling on same server as other sensitive data (ie. Medical insurance) if you have posted a customer’s financial data and there’s a breach, will they go after the Cloud provider, or you?”


What is cloud Computing?Software as a service

operating outside of the firewall in servers and storage systems

shared with other companies.

Way to deliver services independent of physical hardware or platforms

A bolt of lightening between two clouds that holds 10 tera petaflops of

information!

What the hell is it? I don’t see what we do differently with it

other than changing our marketing messages.

Larry Ellison - CEO Oracle


Thank YouRick Speciale


how to tame the it monster

Technology