Delivering Business Value With IT At Hefty Hardware Teaching
How to collaborate effectively with the business at all levels remains the key IT challenge. Key Issues There is increasing pressure on business to be more flexible and to deliver products and services to customers quickly. IT practices often inhibit these business goals. IT Is expected to deliver both cheap, reliable operations AND create new business value. These goals can get confused by both business and IT leaders and leadership can mix these up when evaluating IT or when doing IT planning and budgeting. IT is a key player In delivering most business strategies these days.
Too often, IT leaders see "getting to know the business" as secondary to almost every other IT issue, such as planning and architecture. Spending time in the business is seen as a "boondoggle. " "Technocrats" Is confusing and frustrating for business. This can work against IT plans and strategies because business leaders don't understand how these plans/strategies relate to their own needs, issues, and strategies. Business expects IT communication to be In business language. Teaching Approach As a start, pre-board the organization chart depicted in Appendix A.
This helps to keep the various reporting and relationship roles straight. Setting the Scene This case takes a "horizontal" slice through a number of coexistent issues. As a result, he challenge is "knowing where to start" ? Just as It Is In real organizations ? and this requires detective work. The first task is therefore to highlight the issues. To do this, simply ask the class to identify all the issues presented within the case. They should Identify the following at a minimum: The UP of Retail Marketing. Key driver behind the new "Savvy Store" program, recognizes the crucial role that IT will have to play but has no confidence that her IT counterparts within the organization will be able to "get toys company' to get it done! Although relationships between the business and IT seem o work at the mid-management level (I. E. , Glen Vogel, the COO, really likes his IT account manager, Jenny Henderson, who "sits in on all our strategy meetings and seems to really understand our business"), at the project level the "IT people don't even know some of our basic business functions, like how our warehouses operate".
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With respect to the contribution of IT to the business, Glen Vogel clearly distinguishes between the "good, cheap, reliable computer operations" where IT is delivering value for the money, and to the creation of new business products and services where "we don't feel IT is contributing". The UP of Retail Marketing doesn't see how IT is contributing to the execution of the business strategy. But the problem is as much on the business side as the IT side.
The example of the COM project demonstrates how the business is not "on the same page with itself. " The business assigned their most Junior people, failed to agree on a "version of truth," insisted on workarounds, enhancements, and exceptions. Jenny suggested that "it would be a lot easier for us in IT if the business would get its act together about what it wants from IT. " Basically, it is difficult for the IT organization to contribute to the execution of the business treated when the business strategy is an ever-moving target.
The severity of the disconnect between IT and the business becomes apparent when the COO's invitation to the senior IT executives to accompany him on a trip to "see what it is really like in the field" is viewed by the IT executives as an unnecessary "boondoggle" that would keep them away from their more important work - clearly a case of misaligned priorities! Farad's immediate solution to send Jenny and Joyce (the new intern) on the field trip with the COO, instead of the five senior IT executives, reveals a lack of political awareness on the part of the CIO.
There is a huge communications gap between IT and the business as exemplified by the R&D guys' presentation on how Hefty could benefit from the new mobile capabilities which was seen as technical "mambo-jumbo' by the business. This gap is so significant that, according to Jenny Henderson, the IT guys didn't even understand "why the business couldn't see how these bits and bytes they're talking about translate into something that it can use to make money. CICS at Hefty turn over every two years as a result of various causes such as "a major application crash, plummeting user satisfaction, implants about IT costs or an expensive new system failure. " Analysis Once the issues are on the board, you can invite the class to summarize the situation at Hefty based on the evidence in front of them. There are a number of issues in the case but the students should be able to focus them down to two key challenges which are highlighted in the case.
First, Jenny Henderson suggests that "a practical goal would be to find ways for business and IT to work collaboratively at all levels. " Then she goes on to elaborate that the business and IT "each hold pieces of the true picture of the business we need to figure out a better way to put them together than simply trying to force them to fit. " Second, the question in Glen Vogue's mind was how could the business and IT work together to deliver the Savvy Store vision "when IT was essentially operating in its own technical world, which bore very collaboration while the second is one of communication.
This case illustrates what happens with ineffective communication and ineffective collaboration. There are a lot of different possible solutions to address both the short term needs ND the long term needs at Hefty but what is most important is that students make sure that their solutions address both the communications challenges and the collaborations challenge. Addressing only one of these would not be effective. For instance, an issue that requires immediate attention by Farad is to respond to Glen Vogue's invitation to Join him on a field visit.
Rather than simply agreeing (in spite of the other pressing issues he and his team are facing), students might suggest that Farad meet with Glen to discuss not only the timing of the field trip but its overall AOL in order to outline some deliverables for the field trip. Students should recognize the importance of effective communication here; that is, Farad must convey to Glen that he understands the reason for the field trip and communicates its value to him and his staff personally.
With respect to collaboration, perhaps the field trip could be tied directly to the Savvy Store program with the deliverable being a detailed implementation plan to best accommodate the intricacies of the retail outlets. This would be a good overall recommendation as it would constitute effective communication as well as effective collaboration. Discussion Questions 1 . How effective is the partnership between IT and the business at Hefty Hardware? Identify the shortcomings of both IT and the business. The business-IT partnership is problematic at Hefty.
While IT seems to be delivering reliable cost-effective operations, it is not partnering effectively with business to deliver on the new business strategy. The CIO is relatively new and most of his senior managers appear to be "techies" who pay more attention to internal IT matters, such as planning and architecture than to business. Business leaders doubt hat IT really understands the new strategy and that it can deliver on it. Communication with business leaders has largely been delegated to "relationship managers" who understand the business and can speak its language.
However, communication with other parts of IT (e. G. , R&D, development teams) is deemed to be unintelligible and executives are highly impatient with it as a result. IT leaders don't appear to understand corporate politics and the importance of building good relationships with other executives to get things done. On the business side, infighting between different business units causes lack of lariat for IT and increases development expense. Business leaders often confuse IT's goal of delivering new business value with the goal of reducing operating expense, leaving IT leaders confused about their priorities.
Often they believe that changing the CIO on a regular basis will be more effective than developing a true partnership with him/her. Misprints="l ">
In addition, Farad and his IT leadership team need to build stronger relationships with the business leadership team. The more each team knows about the needs and challenges of the other, the easier the integration will be. Furthermore, IT leaders need to be able to communicate their needs in terms of business issues and strategies, e. G. , how integrated information is a key driver of the new strategy. All of hose issues could be improved if Farad and his team accept Glen's invitation to go on a road trip together.
Better information will lead to more effective and business- centered IT plans; improved relationships will make it easier for both sides to resolve problems and see the other's point of view. While this may mean postponing some IT planning matters for a week or so, what will be gained will more than offset the lost time. On their return, the IT leadership team should together review the Savvy Store program's IT needs and prepare a prioritize list of projects and their key business value and costs.
These should then be discussed with the business leadership team and consensus be reached about the top priority projects, their costs and benefits. IT should expect business participation on all its teams and senior business sponsorship of its projects and commitment to resolve business disagreements. This new governance model will enforce partnership and ensure that both business and IT are committed to the same goals. Only then, should a timeline be developed to deliver on this strategy. Appendix A Organization Chart Appendix B Issues Embedded in this Case IT Issues
IT is expected to deliver both cheap, reliable operations AND create new business expected to become more flexible to meet changing business goals. Communication from IT to business is often unintelligible. IT is a key player in delivering most business strategies these days. Too often, IT leaders see "getting to know the business" as secondary to almost every other IT issue, such as planning and architecture. Spending time in the business is seen as a business leaders don't understand how these plans/strategies relate to their own needs, issues, and strategies. Technical experts often cannot connect what they know o business needs.
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Delivering Business Value With IT At Hefty Hardware Teaching. (2018, Feb 22). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/delivering-business-value-with-it-at-hefty-hardware-teaching/
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