The recurring theme in conversations that I’ve had with senior IT executives at large corporations and with senior management consultants seems to always come back to the same thing: How do I protect my team in ‘09 for continued execution in the future? Seemingly, every company, regardless of how well or how poorly they are doing, are all cutting back people in a self-fulfilling prophecy of an even weaker economy. That means that those companies that are cutting back on people will not (or should not) engage in very large, multi-year, longer-term payout technology investments without a very significant compelling event. So, what is the technology exec to do?
My answer has been the same to all of them: re-invent yourself, your team, and your theme. Get closer to the business revenue streams by working on the things that matter to the business now: Time to Cash and Internal Efficiency. Adopt a new theme: FAST.
Ok Carlos, what they heck does that mean? Well, it’s quite fundamental: everyone is looking at how to get to cash quickest and to make the most with less or equal. And everyone wants to see very fast paybacks with very little hit on cash flow.
In the first case, that could mean quicker consolidation of financials, tracking systems/business intelligence, new credit reporting features in your CRM systems, CRM systems, etc. Whatever it takes to shorten that cycle will help the business. In many of those cases shown above, implementation could be very quick: less than one quarter, with a very rapid payout.
In the second case, it means re-inventing how you do business. Systems implemented in ‘09 should focus on expedience of both IT and corporate staff. That means finding ways of implementing systems quicker if not more superficially, with a significantly more tactical focus. Huh, you say? Let me explain: implementing technologies such as business intelligence that enable you to look at your information quicker also enable you to serve analytics that can boost the business. Implementing technologies such as process management (or workflow) enable a company to rapidly develop very focused (and tactical) solutions that can easily integrate into your backend systems for very rapid application development. Both of those technologies can greatly boost the day to day interaction and the monthly delivery of solutions to the business, raising IT’s standing, boosting profitability, and greatly enhancing efficiency.
Now, let me get a bit deeper into business intelligence and how it can be used in both Cash and Efficiency. Let’s say that your CFO has asked to cut DSO by 3 days to improve cash flow. Using business intelligence, we can build a dashboard that looks at the habitual late payers and puts them on a call rotation BEFORE they are late, as a friendly reminder. It can take the worst offenders and put them on a tighter call pattern to shorten those cycles, and it can give management an idea of what effect a “pay early” promotion might have. That’s a really simple dashboard that can be quickly built on top of just about any ERP that typically has huge benefits. There are literally dozens of those types of solutions that can be used to enhance the call to cash process with little investment. Most companies already have that business intelligence infrastructure; all they have to do now is to change focus and take advange of it.
On the process management side, it’s even bigger: The ability to deliver solutions extremely fast so that the needs of the business are immediately fulfilled. In the early 90’s we called it the SWAT approach. The difference being is that with a strong process management solution, the development of the solution itself becomes all about the definition of the process and the integration of it vs. standard development. That means that you can quickly and easily integrate into your backend systems, drive the development thru the description of the process, and be able to implement a solution in a matter of hours or days, not weeks and months. Furthermore, when tied into business intelligence dashboards, you can have closed loop management of issues as soon as they are identified. I have seen team members of organizations using these types of technologies release as many as 5 process-tied solutions per week. YES, PER WEEK!
Those are just two enablers for Time to Cash and Internal Efficiency. There are dozens of quick payback investment opportunities out there. It’s just up to you, Mr. IT executive, to choose the right ones for your organization. Just remember, 2009 is NOT a good year to embark on an SAP implementation IF you dont have a very significant compelling event. However, it would be a great year to implement Business Intelligence, Enterprise Performance Management, or Enterprise Process Management. And to aid with cash flow issues, always remember that the big software vendors are always at the ready to provide you with credit lines to not affect your organization’s cash flow.
Both of these solutions are relatively low cost and provide for a lot of very quick wins. And as I have told some of those IT executive friends, they are also in place today at some of their competitors. In 2009, the fastest IT dogs are going to survive. Those engaged in the longer investments are going to get hammered as companies look to streamline. It’s your choice.