New Developments in Practice IV: Managing the Technology Portfolio

Due to the unrelenting pace of technological change, the task of managing an organization\u27s IT portfolio can be formidable. Failure to accomplish this task effectively can expose an organization to technology failure and/or financial risk. This paper, based on discussions with a focus group of senior IT managers from a number of leading-edge organizations, outlines the challenges of managing the IT portfolio and presents recommended, tried-and-true strategies to tackle the problem

Developments in Practice XVIII-Customer Knowledge Management: Adding Value for Our Customers

The nature and quality of a firm\u27s dialogue with its customers is a core capability. Few firms are able to manage this dialogue effectively and use what they know to add more value for customers and ultimately improve firm performance. Knowledge management (KM) functions are therefore being asked how their expertise can help companies do a better job in this area. This paper examines the wide variety of ways organizations use KM in their customer relationships. It begins with an examination of the need for Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) and how it differs from Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It then looks at the four different dimensions of customer knowledge and at some of the innovative ways companies use them to add value for their customers. It next discusses the key organizational challenges of implementing CKM. The paper concludes with some best practices and advice about how to implement a program of CKM successfully in an organization. It suggests that CKM is not a tool like CRM but a process that is designed to dynamically capture, create and integrate knowledge about and for customers

Developments in Practice XIV: IT Sourcing - How Far Can You Go?

Outsourcing is now a widely accepted part of dong business. What started as a mechanism to lower costs became an integral part of a much larger IT strategy. Today, newer forms of outsourcing are on the horizon and newer approaches that will change yet again how IT sourcing decisions are made. Better connectivity, the availability of high quality staff, and much lower costs in other countries are changing sourcing markets and expanding sourcing possibilities for companies. To examine how sourcing is changing in IT organizations, the authors convened a focus group of senior IT managers from a variety of companies. This paper explores the evolution of sourcing and how sourcing strategies are shifting. Then it looks at emerging sourcing models and particularly at offshore/nearshore outsourcing. Finally, it identifies critical factors for successful sourcing. The paper concludes that while sourcing is changing the nature of the work that is done internally in IT, it is unlikely that it will eliminate this function altogether or reduce the its value to that of a utility. To the contrary, more and more organizations will need the systems thinking, architectural understanding, and strategic awareness embodied in a modern IT department to ensure that they don\u27t end up with a hollow shell of an organization which provides limited added value to the marketplace

Developments in Practice IX:The Evolution of the KM Function

In 2000, a group of knowledge managers from twenty-five companies met to discuss the current state of knowledge management (KM) in their organizations. KM was then in a very early stage of its existence and took a wide variety of forms. Most KM groups were experiencing difficulties determining an appropriate role and function for themselves. Organizations were undertaking many different activities under the banner of KM. These activities were often fairly wide-ranging in scope with broad, general goals. To better understand how KM had matured and to explore its likely future development, the authors convened a similar focus group of knowledge managers in 2003. We found that KM\u27s objectives are now focused into more achievable goals. Increasingly, the emphasis is on delivering immediate, measurable benefits by leveraging knowledge that is already available in an organization rather than on creating new knowledge. KM also carved out some key responsibilities for itself, such as creating and maintaining both an Internet framework and a portal to internal company information, and content acquisition, synthesis, organization, and management. Overall, the KM function became considerably more practical in focus and much less academic. The biggest challenge facing KM in the future continues to be the need to demonstrate tangible, measurable value to the organization. Disillusionment with KM tools and an inability to find useful content are seen as key threats to KM\u27s survival. Maintaining alignment with business objectives is thus the most important means of ensuring KM\u27s relevance. The next few years will be crucial for KM. If it can make its mark and demonstrate its value, we can expect to see knowledge management grow and prosper. If it cannot, its growth could be stunted for many years to come

Developments in Practice XII: Knowledge-Enabling Business Processes

While in theory what an organization knows is fundamental to its success, in practice only a few companies have seen significant business results from their knowledge management (KM) initiatives. Therefore, many knowledge managers are rethinking how and where knowledge really adds value. Connecting knowledge activities to core business processes is slowly coming to be recognized as a second, and more effective, stage of KM in organizations. This paper examines how practicing knowledge managers from several different organizations are knowledge-enabling business processes to deliver business value. It then integrates their experiences with previous research to present a preliminary framework of how to link KM better into business process design activities

New Developments in Practice II: Enterprise Application Integration

The term enterprise application integration (EAI) refers to the plans, methods, and tools aimed at modernizing, consolidating, integrating and coordinating the computer applications within an enterprise. The need to integrate across applications is being driven by customer demand for access to information and the desire of the business for a single point of contact with their customer base. The challenges are significant because of the variety of technologies in need of integration and because integration cuts across lines of business. This paper distinguishes among four different (but related) targets of EAI: Data-level integration Application-level integration Process-level integration Inter-organizational-level integration The paper then discusses the technologies that assist with this integration (the EAI toolkit ) under the following categories: Asynchronous Event/Message Transport Transformation Engines Integration Brokers Business Process Management Frameworks The paper concludes by outlining six key strategies for managing EAI suggested by a group of senior IT managers from leading-edge firms

Developments in Practice XV: Information Delivery: IT\u27s Evolving Role

Until recently, investments in information analysis and decision support languished as companies undertook higher priority IT projects with more direct and immediate impact on their bottom lines. Today, the success of how some companies use information for competitive advantage and operational effectiveness (e.g., Wal-Mart, Dell) is causing business leaders to look more carefully at how well their firms are leveraging information. Furthermore, web technology makes it both technically and financially feasible to deliver literally millions of pages of text to desktops as needed. The technologies available to manage different types of information are also improving rapidly and converging. Software, while still imperfect, is therefore opening the door to a host of new possibilities for information management and delivery. These factors are placing new pressures on IT to focus more thoughtfully on the information component of their function. This paper explores how IT\u27s role in information delivery is changing and evolving in organizations. It first surveys the rapidly expanding world of information and technology and why information delivery became so important so rapidly. Then, it discusses the value proposition of information in organizations. Next it describes the important components of an effective information delivery function in IT. Finally, it looks at how information delivery will likely evolve over the next five to ten years and what this will mean for IT and organizations. The paper concludes that information delivery in IT is an idea whose time has finally come. For the first time, senior business executives are ready to hear about the value of information. However, the challenges for IT are huge. Not only does effective information delivery require new technologies, it also means that IT must develop new internal non-technical and analytic capabilities and makes its work much more visible in the organization

Developments in Practice XIII Electronic Communications: Strategies for Coping with the Deluge

The good news is that technologies (e.g., PDAs, mobile computing) allow individuals to communicate with others virtually anytime, anyplace, and anywhere. Among other things, the expanded communications allows business to be transacted in real time by curtailing traditional lags. The bad news is individuals now communicate with others virtually anytime, anyplace and anywhere. As a result, the volume of messages increased significantly, extraordinary demands are placed on managers\u27 time, and businesses face increased costs and liabilities. A new set of management issues were created to manage electronic communications effectively. Based on the insights of a group of senior IT managers from leading edge organizations, the authors explore the issues arising from the proliferation of electronic communication channels and share proven strategies for tackling the issues

Enabling Collaboration with IT

Globalizing organizations, outsourcing, mobile work, inter-organizational teams, innovation, and reaching out to suppliers and customers are driving today’s need to improve collaboration within firms. And information technology (IT) is at the center of these trends. Businesses are also experimenting with different types of collaboration. While IT functions provide the “heavy lifting,” such as connectivity and information integrity, without which most collaboration efforts would not be effective, how new applications are implemented is often as important as the technology itself in delivering business value. This article explores IT’s role in enabling collaboration in organizations, and at the same time, what IT’s role should not be (i.e., what responsibilities and accountabilities should properly be the function of the business). It presents the results of research with a focus group of senior IT managers, looking first at why collaboration is becoming so important and the business value it enables. Next, it examines some of the different characteristics of collaboration and the key components of a collaboration program and at IT’s role in one. It concludes that effective collaboration will not result from implementing more collaboration software. Instead, this will require a proactive and holistic strategy that integrates business goals and technology potential

Developments in Practice VIII: Enterprise Content Management

Enterprise content management (ECM) is an integrated approach to managing all of an organization\u27s information including paper documents, data, reports, web pages, and digital assets. ECM includes the strategies, tools, processes, and skills an organization needs to manage its information assets over their lifecycle. While many vendors would suggest that their software is a panacea, most knowledge managers recognize the greater challenge - to develop an overall ECM strategy that will ensure good information practices are in place and effectively integrated with technology where appropriate. An effective ECM strategy should address each of the four lifecycle stages: 1. Capture - all activities associated with collecting content. 2. Organize - indexing, classifying and linking content and databases together to provide access within and across business units and functions. 3. Process - sifting and analyzing content in ways that inform decision-making. 4. Maintain - ensuring that content is kept up-to-date. A guiding principle at all stages is flexibility. Methods of collecting, organizing, processing and maintaining content that casts it in concrete could become a liability in the near future. While the top-down vision for ECM includes improved decision-making, better utilization of information and the collection of competitive intelligence, most ECM initiatives take a bottom-up approach that focuses on delivering immediate benefits through projects such as intranet portals, information searching, and web content management. However, knowledge managers also recognize that greater value can be gained from taking a more strategic approach to ECM. The research shows that those organizations that can marry effective content stewardship practices with appropriate information behaviors and values and information technology on a broader scale can have a significant effect on their organization\u27s performance