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by CUNA has published an article about the changes in behaviors caused by technology. From the article: "In today's credit union it's more crucial than ever for the front-line staff to capitalize on cross-selling opportunities. However, according to the “Front-line Mystery Shop” study from Los Angeles-based Cohen Brown® Management Group Inc., 74% of front-line staff don't recognize the clues of a sales opportunity. "
Colin discuses the need to use technology modification to realize sales opportunities that are lost in everyday business. Although focusing on Credit Unions, the practice is relevant in all other businesses as well. Information Technology specialists need to become more "business minded" and learn to not only recognize such opportunities but also help core business see these measures and find ways to implement them. The trend of business is shifting away from IT departments existing as a "black box" by making them an integral part of the strategic decision making process. As such, this will become an increasingly important skill for IT staff.
Yet another example of this trend can be read in a very recent article of CIO Update. Dennis Drogseth discusses why he believes IT management is at a tipping point, "Indeed, IT is no longer just about high levels of service availability. IT’s role is shifting towards enabling the actual creation of new business models."
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The use of wikis in business by Brandon :: NR9 :: on 29 April 2007
I've had some experience with this of late. I'm an engineer, not an IT guy, but I've been working to get a wiki implemented at my employer (a large oil services company) to serve as a knowledge base. The idea of a wiki is simple and easily demonstrated by the success of Wikipedia, so I thought it would be an easy task. On the contrary, a whole change in culture is necessary for the wiki philosophy to work. Management must trust the employees enough to give them the freedom to create something truly useful. If they don't, they will choke the life out of the essentially social wiki culture and provide yet another service that is completely safe - and virtually unused.
Getting back to the point, however, the wiki represents an IT-based tool (in addition to blogs) that will, in my opinion, begin to dominate inter and intra-company communication. Given the critical nature of the success of communication in most any industry, it is easy to see the influence of IT in this arena.
It is interesting, however, to note the simplicity of these tools. I don't know that an IT professional would be needed to administrate such things. In fact, that's what makes the tools so useful - you remove the middleman. My point is, as the referenced article above indicates, the IT staff needs to develop a better business sense - not only because it will help the business, but because it will help them remain valuable in a world where services traditionally only available through the IT department are now increasingly accessible outside the IT ranks.
RE: The use of wikis in business by acer123 :: NR0 :: on 29 April 2007
"... because it will help them remain valuable in a world where services traditionally only available through the IT department are now increasingly accessible outside the IT ranks." Exactly! You stated it better than I. A better developed business sense is required to protect oneself from corporate outsourcing. Many in IT don't believe in the core principle of the model and think feel that the longevity of their job is completely out of their own control. On the contrary. I believe that you will never see "business sense" (as you stated it) outsourced. There will /always/ be a need for someone that understands technology as well as business and can help lead the company in designing and implementing corporate & strategic goals. That skill set can't be outsourced.
Extending your last thought further I believe that a valuable IT person will be one that will drive simplicity into the technological areas of the business. IT has spent many, many years creating an environment that is unnecessarily complex and unmanagable and have gotten away with it because of the vast disconnect in technology "knowledge" that the business had. No businessman had a home computer, hardly knew a single "tech word", and had a false belief that more technology meant stronger profits. In today's world where everyone has some level of techological abilities (even my 5 year old knows how to use and modify the confirguration of my computer) these same businessman are now looking at IT and asking intelligent questions: why is it so complex? Why is it so expensive? They are demanding answers and they have the technical intelligence to judge the answers as reasonable or not. I think it is this increased awareness that is driving the outsource model - IT just can't justify the cost any longer. They are struggling with this new communication and knowledge that is coming from the business areas of a company. This is a new world, indeed.
RE: The use of wikis in business by Brandon :: NR9 :: on 30 April 2007
I follow you on everything but the outsourcing bit. How does that fit in? It seems to me a simpler IT structure would just mean less IT staff, not outsourced IT staff.
Simpler Systems Yes ... Less Employees Not Necessarily by VnutZ :: NR8 :: on 30 April 2007
It seems to me a simpler IT structure would just mean less IT staff, not outsourced IT staff.
We've got a "new service line" being developed called IT Effectiveness where our advisers assist business with determining the metrics that define their IT's ROI, shortfalls, value added, etc.
I would say the simplification is less a matter of the personnel involved and the number of systems involved. It may follow that reducing the complexity of the IT will result in requiring less administrators, etc ... but the two do not necessarily go hand in hand.
As an example, say a business has a problem with identity management. Their issue arises from having multiple sources of authentication and processes of id population that lie outside of automated controls. Over time, this thing "devolves" into a mish-mash of identities that no longer reconcile between systems. The IT has not provided an effective solution to the problem. Their fix involves incorporating a master id vault with automated feeders to populate and confirm an id's existence in the appropriate authentication engines for an application. The process is "simpler" but doesn't necessarily equate to having less IT employees.
Depending on how this is spun, such changes within business can be examples of IT affecting the business model. What if you're an insurance company? It would make sense to treat the claimants in a similar fashion to avoid having identity mix-ups between processing, authorizing and pay-out systems. Unless, of course, your business model was to stall and delay pay-outs as long as possible. :-)