As today’s technology continues to get
better and faster, it has become more
important that companies make sure their IT strategies evolve efficiently at a
speed that keeps up with or even surpasses the competition.
“Management can use IT as a competitive
advantage in many ways,” says Eric Stoll,
director of technology for Arke Systems in
Atlanta. “More and more, companies are
looking to IT to make their business better
at execution, which requires more efficiency and better communication.”
Smart Business learned more from Stoll
about how a company can ensure its IT
makes a positive impact on business
processes, operations and infrastructure in
a competitive atmosphere.
What role should IT play in a company’s overall strategy?
By now, we all understand the magnitude
of an effective IT solution and what is possible for companies who use it well. A
robust IT solution provides a company with
the ability to be more nimble and able to
adapt to a changing market, while more
efficiently executing initiatives and improving communication, both internal and
external. For example, CRM (customer
relations management) systems make it
possible for sales to manage a high-volume
pipeline, for marketing to execute high-performance campaigns, for customer support
to reach the right person for any service
issues that arise and for management to
access reports of all this activity.
In addition to improving specific methods and tools, companies often use IT
solutions in their approach to enterprise
architecture as a way to leverage advantage in their marketplace. For example,
companies that adopt a service-oriented
architecture benefit from the agility and
faster implementation of new solutions
that a well-designed IT infrastructure can
provide.
For a company to truly differentiate itself
in the marketplace and gain an advantage
through IT solutions, it’s imperative that
there’s alignment and buy-in from the executive team, who needs to ask certain questions about the business itself: What does
our competition do better than we do?
How could we improve to be better than
they are? How is the company evolving for
future growth? By tying the IT initiatives
back to strategic goals, companies can
begin to understand how IT will make an
impact on their business methods.
How can well-designed solutions work as an
advantage?
A well-designed solution works to your
advantage when you have a clear understanding of the solution’s purpose, its
planned lifetime and how it needs to
evolve. Lack of understanding of any of
these will result in delays in decision-making and lost opportunity. The worst position to be in is one where you’re fishing for
a solution to make an existing system better. You’ll end up spending a lot of time and
resources trying to solve a problem that
may not even have an answer. Good
upfront design will yield savings throughout the entire solution’s lifetime.
Good design stems from understanding
the purpose for each system in terms of
business goals, whether that goal is to
improve communication, provide better
customer service or make operations more
efficient. Developing performance metrics
for an IT solution is dependent on what
problem the company wants to solve, what
business goal needs to be met or what
capability needs to be created. Some of the
simpler metrics might be related to software features and functionality, but
remember, a solution is more than just software — it’s the whole delivery and support
mechanism, too. How quickly are support
requests handled? Can the software adapt
to changing business needs in a timely
fashion? What are the training requirements for new employees? Companies
should think in a holistic way about how
the solution needs to support the business
as a whole.
Should IT solutions be proactive or reactive?
Solutions should always be proactive,
meaning that management has a clear
vision of the company’s plan, calculates
risk and is forward-thinking. Each initiative
must have a defined purpose, and there
should be a method for measuring its success. This is where proactive management
comes in to ensure that IT solutions are
responsive in two ways: 1) results are
delivered quickly to the users and 2) the
solution can be quickly modified to meet
changing business needs.
How can a company tell if its solutions are
doing the job they were designed to do?
Lay out success metrics at the beginning
of the project and measure the solution
against them on a regular basis. The solution needs to have a mission statement or
purpose for existing in the first place. Each
solution needs a sponsor that will ensure it
has a clear business purpose.
Create a scorecard for each solution
based on predefined success metrics. The
scorecard needs to reflect a passing score
if the solution is working as designed, and
a failing score otherwise. Reviewing these
scorecards on a regular basis and being
honest about the scores is the only way to
identify gaps and find opportunities to
improve.
ERIC STOLL is director of technology for Arke Systems. Reach him at (404) 812-3123 x130 or [email protected].
