Thursday 29 September 2011

Business Technology vs. Information Technology


Business technology isn’t about different technology; it’s about a different way of thinking about technology – as a means to an end, not just a raison d’etre for the IT group.  Communication is the lynchpin of a business technology approach, allowing both groups to integrate and understand each other’s objectives and challenges in order to work together towards the ultimate objective of the organization – generate revenue.

 

Unify IT with the business

The term business-IT alignment has been around for a long time, but many organizations are struggling with putting this somewhat ethereal objective into practice.  IT needs to become part of the business, not just a ‘business partner’.  But what does this really mean?  It is difficult to devise a concrete strategy for integrating IT into the business to form a unified entity and dissolve departmental silos.  Fundamentally, it’s about involving both groups in business processes.  IT needs to be involved in business decisions and the business must be involved in IT decisions.  That means having business and IT people sitting in the same room when decisions are made – getting IT people involved at the earliest possible stage in new projects before there is a clear requirement for IT services and support and getting business units involved when IT is making changes to business systems.  IT can provide valuable automation solutions to business processes, and the business can communicate how changes will have impact in the context of customer interactions and patterns of business activity.  Business Technology goes beyond alignment, beyond integration – it’s about creating a symbiotic relationship between business units and IT to create a single aggregate business entity.

 Burt Reynolds 'gets' Business Technology

 

Measure IT with business metrics

The accepted metrics for IT mean nothing to the business.  99.999% availability might be considered a worthy goal for an e-commerce system, but if the 5 minutes of downtime that does occur coincides with, or is caused by, the busiest business period of the year then IT has failed to meet the needs of the business.  Business impact is simply not represented in this metric, so it hides a problem that IT won’t identify and ultimately address.  They need to understand the patterns of the business so that they can properly reprioritise incidents, problems and changes based on what is important at the time – e.g. which service interruption is costing the company most money.  In short, Business Technology metrics have a dollar sign in front of them to indicate how well IT is supporting business objectives.

 

Scrutinize both the business and IT when there is a failure

When IT fails to meet the needs of the business, the failure must be scrutinized to identify the problem and changes that must be made to both infrastructure and business process.  Fault does not always lie inside a little grey box – communication, competence and process could be at fault.  If an IT department decides to take a system offline over a holiday weekend, they might not be aware that it’s traditionally the busiest time for the business.  Is that a fault in IT, or a fault in the way the company communicates?

 

Tackle IT overspend to focus resources

In the past, technology has enjoyed a ‘silver bullet’ status, with technology investment taking a huge slice of the annual budget pie.  The current economic climate is exerting huge pressure on CFOs to identify savings, so they are naturally turning the microscope on the mysteriously opaque IT department and its massive price tag.  As a result, justifying budget is a number one challenge for the CIO.  If IT investment is justified in business terms (a difficult task) then the identification of redundant IT is a useful bi-product of this process.  Software and infrastructure that does not contribute tangible business value can be shut down or reassigned to form an IT function that is more ‘right-sized’ to the needs of the organization.

 

Takeaways:

  • Business technology is technology that adds value to the business.  If it doesn’t add value, it’s probably redundant IT ready for the chop.
  • Tackle IT-to-BT transformation service by service – prioritised by business importance.
  • Extract the silver bullets - consider all IT to be legacy IT until its value has been proven as BT.
  • CIOs should be pro-active about cutting costs now, before the CFO wields the hatchet.

17 comments:

  1. Durham Martial Artist Helps Local Children Build Self-Confidence And Strong Character.Martial Arts is a tool used to build confidence, discipline, respect, appreciation, focus, and much more! This is exactly what Luc Trudell of InnerActive Martial Arts sets out to do in his daily life.
    Need this so click here
    Community ON BuzzFeed

    ReplyDelete
  2. Take a look at our cross cut paper shredder comparison table to see all the technical details, prices and ratings.
    More info Please visit best cross cut shredder

    ReplyDelete
  3. Raw breed is the best Music video by Raw Breed performing Italian Job. (C) 2017 Rap Legends Recordings




    ReplyDelete
  4. estateguru review This company supports lending through peers and also facilitates property loans for short term and also mid term.

    ReplyDelete
  5. stay hard longer pillssatified with thier partners Smaller penis, Lack of stamina, aging often causes a steady decline in vitality & virility, which has a direct & negative impact on erections, sexual stamina & staying power. Some of the symptoms that may prevent you from satisfying the woman in your life may include:

    ReplyDelete
  6. hepsibahis Hepsibahis güncel web sitesine buradan direk giriş yap. Youwin adı ile bilinen Türkiye ve Kıbrıs üzerinden canlı bahis ve casino slot oyun hizmeti veren siteye erişim sağlayın. Hepsi bahis firması için yeni giriş adresi sadece burada.

    ReplyDelete
  7. less than one dollar web hosting Domain hosting can be hit and miss when it comes to finding it cheap. Don’t get me wrong there are cheap web hosting options, but how about “super cheap and affordable” web hosting. Less than a dollar is “truly” affordable web hosting and this is a chance to get access to web hosting that is consistent and reliable when it comes to affordable web hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  8. baanpolball บ้านผลบอล (baanpolball) อัพเดทตลอด 24 ชั่วโมง ราคาบอลวันนี้ วิเคราะห์บอลแม่น ฟรีๆ ทุกคู่ 100% ทีเด็ดบอลวันนี้ 4 คู่ ราคาบอลไหล แบบเรียลไทม์

    ReplyDelete
  9. what is xanax This is one of the many reasons why it is a popular choice, to use Xanax for anxiety treatment because it is fast-acting and can stop and soothe a panic and/or anxiety attack.

    ReplyDelete
  10. canim sohbet Android Dear ChatCanım chat is growing day by day with the android chat service it has given to you and serves you, dear chat lovers, free of charge. You can connect and chat online at any time of the day with your smart devices on our chat site. Anonymous chat is a free chat site that allows you to chat randomly and does not charge any fee or money from our valued chat users.

    ReplyDelete
  11. motherhood CO.MOM is a fun new online magazine and social network community created by moms for moms. Read interesting articles, get advice from our agony aunt, aunt\y anne, learn how to earn an income online with our guru debbie or you can even seek medical advice from our resident physician dr samantha and relax while checking out the latest horoscopes from our trained mystic. Theres even a thriving forum community where moms of the world can get together and enjoy good conversation along with lots of other fun ways to kill some time with a cuppa when taking a break from being super mom at co.mom.

    ReplyDelete