Executives' Top Challenges regarding Business Technology
| 1 |
Projects don't finish on time and budget overruns are the norm. |
| 2 |
Project results don't meet original specifications. |
| 3 |
Unsatisfactory executive and board involvement despite high value and risk potentials. |
| 4 |
Problems with resistance to change. |
| 5 |
Projects are in the domain of IT without business-people taking ownership. |
| 6 |
IT systems are too rigid when business strategy requires them to be flexible and nimble. |
| 7 |
Insular solutions with repetitive functionality and manual, paper-driven, interfaces. |
| 8 |
Overly complex business processes - documentation not up-to-date. |
| 9 |
Lacking real-time quality data - executives can't make informed decisions. |
| 10 |
Companies don't keep pace with competitors but can't explain why. |
If any of these concerns sound familiar to you, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We can help.
| 1 |
Projects don't finish on time and budget overruns are the norm. |
The Standish group, that tracks IT project failures in the US and worldwide, reports (1994) cost overruns in companies⁄
projects of all sizes at an average of 189% and time overruns at an average 222% of the original estimates. These dismal
results from surveys of qualified project managers and IT executives have sadly been repeated year after year.
| 2 |
Project results don't meet original specifications. |
The Standish group reports (1994) that on average only 51% of originally specified features and functions were available for
completed projects, with large companies having the worst record with only 42% of the features and functions in the end
product.
| 3 |
Unsatisfactory executive and board involvement despite high value and risk potentials. |
Business techology introduces risk that must be managed for ultimate business success This requires executive and board
involvement and commitment to provide leadership in risk measurement and monitoring. In many organisations, though,
top management is not informed enough of the value and risk potentials of IT solutions and often stays out of making
informed decisions regarding business technology.
| 4 |
Problems with resistance to change. |
Since the days of Business Process Reengineering in the late 90s organisations that undertake drastic change of
business processes and organisational structures notice that staff, including middle-management, behave negatively towards
change. Resistance to change has the power to stall and even overturn otherwise potentially successful business technology
projects. Read our report on busting barriers to Business Reengineering.
| 5 |
Projects are in the domain of IT without business-people taking ownership. |
To many business people, including executives, business technology belongs to the domain of IT in the organisation, even
that the initiatve for most projects is related to business issues. Very seldomly mixed project teams are found, comprised
from members of both domains. Consequently business specific information is not flowing across to IT which is required,
though, for successful business technology projects.
| 6 |
IT systems are too rigid when business strategy requires them to be flexible and nimble. |
Aligning IT solutions with business strategy is a challenge for many organisations. Sometimes business technology projects
don't travel the road built by strategic business decisions. The business strategy has changed but is not aligned with
technology plans. It could also be the other way around: Technology plans call for technological change but are not closely
linked to business plans.
| 7 |
Insular solutions with repetitive functionality and manual, paper-driven, interfaces. |
Stovepipes are a thing of the past. So it seems. In many organisations they are ubiquitious, though. They have been built
or purchased as solutions to specific problems and live on in a not or haphazardly integrated fashion. In Financial Services
missing straight-through-processing is an example for rampant insular solutions that do not allow automatic processing of
client applications through the complete value chain. The Manufacturing sector has solved a similar problem years ago with
supply chain solutions that integrate distributor, manufacturing and vendor processes.
| 8 |
Overly complex business processes - documentation not up-to-date. |
Very successful organisations have one thing in common, they run simple business processes. On the contrary, many organisations run overly complex processes with sometimes disastrous effects on cost, quality, risk profile and compliance. To make matters worse, business processes are often not documented, partly documented, or the documented processes are not in line with the real processes.
| 9 |
Lacking real-time quality data - executives can't make informed decisions. |
Executives have to make informed decisions on a regular basis. For these, as they do for presentations to e.g. the board, they need to refer to up-to-date data. Sadly, even that most organisations have lots of databases, they often don't command over that one "source of truth" with up-to-date quality data. Consequently executives have to spend too much time hunting down timely and truthful data at the right level of granularity from within their own organisation.
| 10 |
Companies don't keep pace with competitors, but can't explain why. |
It is often hard for executives to get proper data from within their own organisation, but how much harder is it to obtain data about other organisations? Competitor information at a usable level is difficult to come by and mostly not available on internal databases. Therefore the assessment of where competitors stand in relation to their processes and systems is often guesswork.