Business It Convergence

Original version presented at: European CIO Summit 2008

Business-IT Convergence:

The Ultimate Merging of IT and the Business to Drive Innovation and Growth

14th April 2008 Dr. Michael Ali [email protected]

Slide 1

The take-away for today

•

think business value

•

own architecting

•

make it safe

Think business value, own architecture, make it safe

Let me guess… If you’re here, attending the

At the fabulous

Then I can only say….

Congratulations!

You made it! You’re a successful CIO, IT Director,

Congratulations!

You’re aligned with the business

Congratulations!

Your governance model is in place and working

Congratulations!

Your organization is at CMM Level 3 and moving

Congratulations!

Program Management Project Project Management Managemen t Activist Accountability

Relevant Measurement

Proactive Management of Change

Portfolio Management

Full Cycle Governance

Projects & Programmes completed on time &

Congratulations!

IT employee satisfaction has never been higher

Congratulations!

You’re #1, King of the world, top of the heap, IT, IT

But…..

If everything is so wonderful, what is that nagging sense of impending…..

EDS has a whitepaper titled "The Future, Multidimensional CIO" , which is an attempt to cover how the role of the CIO has changed since its inception in the 1970's. "role continues to gain prominence and value in the modern enterprise, the multiple roles of the job are truly becoming daunting."

What do they know that I don’t?

What gap? The “former” IT Department??? Where

The key to future IT success will be for IT executives to make themselves relevant to the business by finding new ways to increase bottom-line profitability. Secret CIO: Business Savvy Is Key To IT Success By Herbert W. Lovelace InformationWeek

It’s not enough for IT to be aligned with business

I guess not!

CIOs Uncensored: The CIO Is Dead; Long Live The CIO by John Soat

What?!?!

There’s a mandatory upgrade?

Roles of the 2010 CIO Strategist Innovation catalyst, effective business partner, shaper of mission and vision Relationship architect Relationship builder across and beyond the enterprise, relationship manager Leader Designer, leader, inspirer, developer of people Information steward Guardian of high-quality data and operationally reliable systems, security, privacy Integrator Leader in enterprise-wide integration of processes, information and decision support Educator Missionary who provides insights about key information technologies

The Looming CIO Shortage By CIOinsight 2007-03-12

Utility provider Supplier of solid, dependable and responsive IT infrastructure services

And it’s less than two years from now?

Being successful as a CIO requires an unusual combination of technical knowhow, business acumen, and organizational leadership skills. It's a job with a sometimes short life cycle, and it takes a seemingly superhuman to do it effectively. -- The Evolving Role Of The CIO, by the Concours Group

I need to be from Krypton?

The need to be able to better predict the future is greater today because there'll be more fallout for companies and CIOs who don't change fast enough or, quite frankly, don't predict fast enough. The Change-Agent CIO December 19, 2007 By John McCormick, Baseline

I have to be able to predict the future (and ‘fast enough’)

Summary

You are (probably) HERE

Convergence is coming: move or die

Audience Exercise: You’ve just been told your job is at risk, and that you’re going to have to “move or die”. Turn to the person next to you*, introduce yourself, and ask them two questions: E. F.

What do you think? How do you feel?

* If you’re sitting alone, invite yourself to a pair, if you see someone sitting alone, pull them into your pair, or make a pair

5 minutes

The journey

New position: Leading the creation and execution of game-winning business strategies via the innovative use of technology

Current position: Supporting business strategy through the application of technology

The first question

Take one last , long look back. Do you have to make the

The first answer

No, you don’t!

Nature abhors a vacuum

Has a mandate to use technology to help the business, along with some level of process ownership

CTO

CFO

Func. leads

Engineering, Marketing, Service, Manufacturing, etc., all have needs that they are willing to fulfill on their own

Others will take up the challenge…

… and you’ll get what’s left

• Infrastructure services (email, etc) • Maintenance and mandatory upgrade projects • Cost reduction exercises

And you’ll go with it when it’s outsourced

So let’s take the journey!

Here’s what you’ll need: •

Attitude:

think business value

•

Weapon:

own architecting

•

Shield:

make it safe

Think business value, own architecting, make it safe

Attitude: think business value (forget alignment)

“You cannot soar with the eagle, if you think like a

Alignment: tons of information Forrester, Gartner, McKinsey, etc. tons of papers and studies (some for free!)

Search on “alignment”, 100 articles

Search on “Business IT Alignment”, 320,000 English webpages

An entire journal devoted to “Aligning IT and Business Strategy”

IT’s #1 issue, resulting in…

Alignment: A Model http://www.12manage.com/methods_venkatraman_strategic_alignment.html

… incredible amounts of time, …

Alignment: Another Model Portfolio Management Program Management Project Project Management Management

Relevant Measurement

Activist Accountability Full Cycle Governance

… energy,…

Proactive Management of Change

Thorp, Information Paradox

Alignment: Yet Another Model http://beta-books.com/value_chain.htm Benson, et. al., From Business Stategy to IT Action

… and money (mine!) spent studying this issue,…

Alignment: other business functions Nothing on business alignment, lots on aligning with IT

Nothing on aligning with the business, some on IT projects and alignment

Nothing in the subject headings of past issues

At last! Articles on aligning purchasing and supply chain strategy with business strategy

… much more than by other “support”

Alignment: The right question(?) Implication Asking “How can we ensure that IT is aligned with the business?” Implies that: IT is ASKING PERMISSION - can we be on the board? - can we see the strategy? - can we have this budget?

Asking “can we?” is supporting, not leading

The right question

How to ensure that IT is aligned with the business

How do we generate business value?

THIS is the question the other functions are

Attitude: think business value (forget alignment)

“You cannot soar with the eagle, if you think like a

Weapon: own architecting

“He or she who architects, rules”

What is Enterprise Architecture? Enterprise Architecture is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure*

The blueprint that ties strategy to process and IT

What is Enterprise Architecture?

What is Enterprise Architecture?

What is Enterprise Architecture?

But you don’t want to own architecture…

…because you don’t want to debate ownership of the

You want to own architecting

The process of CREATION that is more art than science,

...understanding all stakeholder needs,

thinking across all architectural elements,

extrapolating technology and vendor capabilities,

And iterating until you get an answer

So you have to own architecting, and that doesn’t mean…

“…delegate to your Enterprise Architect”

Enterprise Architect

Ownership = non-techie CIOs beware, cost/risk logic is not

Pop Quiz Your team comes to you with a project for Manufacturing, a database needs to be written with user interfaces and connection to bar code reading equipment. Due in 3 months. The team gives you two choices:

Option A: existing tools • 2-3 weeks • $20K-$30K

Option B: new tools • 2 months (maybe) • $1M

Which do you pick?

Pop Quiz Your team comes to you with a project for Manufacturing, a database needs to be written with the user interfaces and connection to bar code reading equipment. Due in 3 months. The team gives you two choices:

Option A: existing tools • 2-3 weeks • $20K-$30K

Option B: new tools • 2 months (maybe) • $1M

Real example, real choice by the CIO (me)

Pop Quiz: Notes

2.

You need a real understanding of the choices (not the cost/risk summary) A scripting language-based enterprise architecture is not a good idea A small app is a great place to start Perl option available as a backup on short notice

3.

You can’t delegate to your Enterprise Architect Already beat down by the other managers Application was seen as “too small” to matter

Result: successfully deployed, foundational for follow-on

Why do you want to own architecting?

A good architecture is one that meets the needs of the stakeholders, does not violate established principles of system architecture, and allows for maintenance, evolution, further development, embedding, etc.

http://sysarch.pbwiki.com/

Who else can balance long-term and short-term needs?

Everyone wants to architect

CTO

Depends on their background (“T” or “IT”), and experience and training in the synthesis of complex automated system architectures

CFO

I have no idea how the CFO would do this (probably via consultant), and what the output would be if they did

Func. leads

Chimney function, chimney architecting

Just because they want to, doesn’t mean they should

Weapon: own architecting

“He or she who architects, rules”

Shield: make it safe

“You can only look ahead when the business is behind you”

Why does it matter

Business Leadership Team

If you’re lucky (possible)…

Why does it matter Business Leadership Team

… if you’re not (probable)

Mission Impossible (and no Tom Cruise) Business Leadership Team

How?

From a bunch of skeptics to a tech-savvy, engaged,

Stephen Covey 101* Concern

*Covey, Stephen, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”

Circle of concern, everything you care about

Covey 101 Concern

Influence

Circle of influence, everything you care about that you can

Covey 101

Focusing on the circle of concern shrinks your circle of

Covey 101

Focusing on the circle of influence, expands it!

Covey 101: Making it safe

The business leadership team are in your circle of concern

Covey 101: Making it safe

Customers

IT Department

The customers and the IT Department are in your circle of

The “customer”

A customer is someone who spends their own money on your company’s product or service

An “internal customer” is a partner, not a customer

The “customer” you can influence

A customer you can influence is someone who spends their own money on your company’s product or service using your IT

These are the people you want to start working with

The “customer” you can influence

Dealer

JLR

Buyer

More interaction with our systems

Dealers and buyers are targets for me

Your IT Department

The business-value driven, architecting, exerting influence with the customer, IT Department

Yes, the department has to be upgraded as well

Who’s got your back? IT Department • Reorganize - Business facing team - trained in innovation - standardized processes

Two constituencies you have to have behind you

My own example Product Development Manufacturing Infrastructure

Application Delivery

Business face-off

Marketing & Sales Finance & HR Purchasing Legal

Does every department have an IT point of contact?

Conclusion: the journey begins

•

think business value

•

own architecting

•

make it safe What’s the first step?

A call to action

The pledge: “I hereby solemnly swear to never again worry about alignment with the business, I will think and work only in terms of business value”

Many will try, few will succeed, the rest will follow. GOOD