An important measure of the success of an IT strategy and architecture is its ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
• CIOs are faced with long investment cycles, while technologylifecycles are only getting shorter. IT needs to be ready for trendsand requirements that are completely unknown when the investments aremade.
• A good part of IT innovation that drives new business opportunitiescomes from consumer IT, and CIOs need to be ready to link in. Todaythis comprises the 2.0 world: Trends on the horizon include augmentedreality and sensor technology, for example. Analyst company IDCpredicts unstructured data will grow at twice the rate of conventionaldata. Already by 2010, unstructured data will make up the majority ofall enterprise data.
• Many businesses are investing in value chain integration, requiringprocesses and systems to link to a wide variety of processes andsystems owned by customers, partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders.

IT offers an infinite range of alternatives and unlimited choice in howto tackle these challenges. Winnowing down a wide range of technologychoices requires discipline. CIOs can demonstrate the requiredleadership by turning unlimited choice into a set of directed options.

Choices are not the same as options. Choices, or alternatives,represent all possibilities. We use the term options in the sense offinancial options, acquired with the express purpose of being exercisedat will. Creating options means taking matters into your own hands. Ina skillful hand, a portfolio of options helps decide what initiativesto expand, which ones to delay, where to change direction, and what toexpedite. If you have specific options - as opposed to unlimitedchoices - you are better prepared for change.

Read more here.

By Tom Savigar, Strategy and Insight Director at Future Labs, and Giles Hutchins, Head of Sustainability Solutions at Atos Origin.

If you have already registered on EPM TV, you do not need to register for this webcast.

Today sees the launch of Oracle EPM Index II – the second study of 800 businesses in Europe and North America to assess levels of adoption of Enterprise Performance Management in different countries and industry sectors. You can download the full report here. 

The results suggest that the global economic downturn has forced organisations to think smarter and adapt their strategy to cope with a rapidly changing market. But, of course, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

The study reveals some big changes since the first Oracle EPM Index was conducted in March 2009. The report highlights how:

• There’s now greater acceptance of the principles of EPM and the need for better integration of management processes. Nearly a third of businesses said that six key processes should be interlinked – up from one-fifth last time
• Businesses have made significant improvements in planning and reporting, becoming more rigorous in their approach to focusing on what they’re good at and investing in those areas
• Many businesses are still failing to engage with stakeholders such as employees, customers, partners, suppliers and regulators. Organisations that paid the most attention to the stakeholder community also made the most progress in achieving management excellence
• There’s now a stronger focus on customer loyalty to drive growth as businesses try to maximise the value of their existing customer base, rather than look for new markets
• Business Intelligence is now seen as an important technological tool by over half of respondents – up from one-fifth in the previous report. And the number of respondents unsure about BI has shrunk dramatically - from 40% to 12%

For a more detailed overview of the findings of the second EPM Index, watch our  Webcast on Thursday 27 January 2010. A panel of experts including Clive Longbottom of Quocirca, who conducted the research, will discuss what the results mean for businesses across Europe and North America. You can get more information and register for the Webcast here. 

For viewers in the UK, there will be another Webcast on Tuesday 26 January 2010 focusing on what the results mean for UK businesses, which, the study suggests, are falling behind their European competitors. You can find more information and register here.

Both Webcasts should make fascinating viewing and give real insight into the stories behind the numbers.

I recently received a promotional email for a "masterclass" onbusiness and IT alignment. The training promised answers on thefollowing questions: "how do you know your IT strategy is aligned withyour business strategy?", "how can you put together a governance modelthat ensures IT follows the business?" and "Pitfalls and successfactors".

I checked, the email wasn't from 1983, but seriously from 2009. Howcan we still have that discussion? Has nothing improved in the last 20years? And moreover, how can business/IT alignment be so misconceived?

First of all, let's define alignment, this is usually skippedalready. From a social-psychological, a person is aligned when theself, self-perception and external perception closely match. Theself-perception is how you look at yourself, and the self is who youreally are. If there is a mismatch you could become delusional,frustrated, and generally uncontrolled. You don't understand yourself.If there is a big gap between the self and self-perception, and theexternal perception, people expect you to be someone that you arereally not. This leads to role distance, and unauthentic behavior too.The same can be said of organizations. If there is a big gap betweentrue organizational behavior and who we think we are, we are kiddingourselves. Did you check out your mission statement and values lately?And if there is a big gap between external perception and theorganization's true motives, you spend more time figuring out how tospin your strategy externally than actually executing on it. Quitedysfunctional.

Same with business/IT alignment. Like any relationship, it needs tocome from both sides. Business perception about value needs to matchthe IT perspective. But... functional relationships should be based onequality. If both parties agree that IT should follow the business,you're in a dependent, submissive relationship. Not mature.

Business needs to align to IT, as much as IT needs to align with thebusiness. It's a two way street. The nature of technology dictates so,for starters. If you are a carpenter, and you buy one of those circularsaw tables (new technology), you'd better organize your process andwork around that table, instead of lifting the table to go to the wood.If IT were to follow the business, deleting text on a screen would haveto be done with Tipp-ex. The whole point of technology is to not alignwith the business, but to bring innovation. New, different, better waysof working. If anything, business should align to technology in orderto be more successful. In fact, secretly we do so already. It hasbecome a best practice to adapt the business to the processes builtinto the ERP system and CRM application, and rightly so.

Then, let's discuss Business/Business alignment. How many times isIT struggling with suboptimal business cases, based on budget held bythe business, by having to put in a departmental solutions, becauseeach department is "unique"? IT is often found to be "nerdy" and having"no sense of urgency" for talking about architecture andinfrastructure. True, IT driven projects are usually not verysuccessful (the business will see to that), but the only thing worse isa business driven project. Short-term successful, but ill-architected,nothing repeatable, and lots of them combined form one big negative ROIin two years down the road. It is the role of IT to see commonalitybetween functional requirements, and take an integrated approach. Itwould be a lot easier if the business departments would align with,well, the other business departments, instead of IT having thatstruggle all the time themselves.

And, while I am on the subject, it's a pity if organizations arestill discussing business/IT alignment. The real battlefront has movedon already. The name of the game is value chain integration. Aligningall stakeholders around a successful and sustainable business model.Making sure partners, suppliers and channels all benefit fromintegrated logistical and administrative flows, while taking intoaccount the requirements of investors, regulators, and society atlarge. This is how alignment contributes to the business strategy.

But perhaps we should start with something else. Remember thedefinition of alignment. The self, self-perception and externalperception need to closely match. Perhaps the real problem is the gapbetween self and self-perception. IT people sometimes think too littleof themselves, and desperately want to be seen as a 'business partner'and considered of strategic importance. Don't worry. You are. Becauseof the nature of technology. And IT people sometimes think too much ofthemselves, claiming they understand the business better than themarketing, operations or sales executives. Don't kid yourself. When wasthe last time you talked to a customer, and constructed a multi-yeardeal? Think of yourself as who you really are: at the core of businessinnovation, while at the same time making sure the business runssmoothly.

Thanks for listening. Rant over.

frank