Management of Information Systems
Is Your E-Business Plan Radical Enough?
The authors maintain that an economic downturn offers the perfect opportunity to get back into the e-business game. That means resisting the temptation to fob off e-business onto the IT department and instead treating it as a long-term, strategic, integral part of the enterprise. The authors report on traditional companies that offer these valuable success lessons: Integrate e-business with all other channels, build on your strengths, don‘t let technical considerations be the tail that wags the dog, find a CIO who thinks like a business leader, and have a business expert head the operation.
The Evolution of the Organizational Architect
Based on surveys of CEOs and CIOs at 97 companies, the authors conclude that many organizations are successfully aligning strategy and technology through the creation (or evolution) of a new role — the organizational architect. Generally, this is technology-smart CEO or business-savvy CIO who develops mechanisms to encourage communication between strategists and technologists. Specific scenarios and techniques are offered from Oracle, IBM, the utility Citipower and the investment bank Macquarie (the latter two in Australia).
Beyond the Business Case: New Approaches to IT Investment
A tidal wave of IT-enabled initiatives has elevated the importance of investing strategically. The opportunities seem limitless, but the resources required — capital, IT expertise, management focus and capacity for change — are not. How to choose? The authors recommend a new investment approach based on a framework they developed after studying the e-business initiatives and supporting IT investments of 30 enterprises. The framework encourages simultaneous investment in four kinds of IT initiative: transformation investments, renewal investments, process improvements and experiments.
Cutting Costs While Improving Morale With B2E Management
Despite lip service paid to the idea that employees are a company‘s greatest asset, too often they are sacrificed in the name of cutting costs and boosting efficiency. But that does not have to be the case. Intensive research by Boston Consulting Group‘s Morten Hansen and Michael Deimler reveals that the Internet technology that brought us B2B and B2C is now bringing us B2E: business-to-employee management. By cultivating employees the way it cultivates customers, a company can develop a more satisfied, more productive work force, achieve greater productivity, cut costs and beat its competitors.
Ally or Acquire? How Technology Leaders Decide
Many collaborative innovation strategies fail, say the authors, because all too often companies choose them without first considering what life-cycle stage their technology is in — and which type of partnership is suited best to that stage. The authors describe four phases in the life cycle of a technology, and detail how, in each phase, the decision to ally or acquire depends not only on company-specific competencies and needs, but also on overall market development and the company”s position relative to its competitors.
Building an Effective Global Business Team
How can companies reverse the generally weak performance of faltering global teams? The authors‘ survey of 58 senior executives from five U.S. and four European multinational organizations reveals the corrosive effects of a number of cross-cultural impediments. The authors elaborate on how carefully crafting a cross-border team‘s charter, composition and process work holistically to increase the odds of success.
Winning the Last Mile of E-Commerce
Getting a customer”s online order is not enough: E-businesses also must show that they can deliver products quickly and efficiently. Based on their research with successful online companies, the authors identify two core concepts for improving e-fulfillment efficiency: making greater use of information flows and capitalizing on existing pipelines and infrastructures. Those concepts underlie five key e-fulfillment strategies: logistics postponement, dematerialization, resource exchange, leveraged shipments and clicks-and-mortar. The authors describe how to determine the best strategy for a given situation.
The Hidden Costs of IT Outsourcing
The cost of information-technology outsourcing involves more than vendor fees, but how much of that additional cost is really necessary? A survey of 50 outsourcing efforts shows that companies are largely unaware of costs associated with such activities as transitioning to a new vendor and so tend not to take measures to reduce them. The author looks at four kinds of hidden costs that can erode the benefits of from outsourcing. He provides anecdotes that show how the choices that a company makes can lead to high hidden costs.
How Do They Know Their Customers So Well?
Many firms know about their customers, but few know the customers themselves or how to get new ones. Leaders in customer-knowledge management go beyond transaction data, using a mix of techniques, and they aren‘t afraid to tackle difficult problems. Davenport, Harris, and Kohli report results from interviews with 24 leading firms and describe seven practices that the leaders share. The companies interviewed — including Harley-Davidson, Procter & Gamble, and Wachovia Bank — have undertaken specific and successful initiatives centered on the management of customer knowledge.
Product-Development Practices That Work: How Internet Companies Build Software
Research from Harvard Business School professor Alan MacCormack and colleagues proves a theory about software development that has been gaining adherents for some time: The best process is an evolutionary one. Focusing on the area of Internet-software development, the researchers uncovered four practices that lead to success: an early release of the evolving product design to customers, daily incorporation of new software code and rapid feedback on design changes, a team with broad-based experience of shipping multiple projects, and major investments in the design of the product architecture.
