Tesco has thrown down the gauntlet. In embarking
onthe world's most ambitious standardisation
programme, it has set a challenge for its IT
teams to work with business leaders and build the applications to
support standard processes.
In the global economy, business process standardisation is the
only game in town. It allows businesses to compare local
performance in the same terms, change processes from a single
template, and support processes with standard technology and
training. Businesses become more intelligent, more agile, and
cheaper to run. In theory.
In practice, it takes skill. IT managers must understand the
needs of business peers at an unprecedented level of detail.
Relationships with a diverse range of professionals have never been
more vital. Cultural barriers and management inertia will always be
in the way. And the approach will be different according to sector
and historical context.
In manufacturing,
Sandvik Mining and Construction makes line-of-business managers
owners of business process templates.
BASF builds compliance with standard processes into management
performance reviews and, ultimately, pay.
In finance,
HSBC's global e-commerce strategy allows it to deliver systems
rapidly and at low cost to different brands.
In the public sector, police forces are striving to create
standard processes for collecting intelligence in order to build a
national criminal intelligence system.
Technical approaches will also differ. Tesco is supporting
processes with new applications, but others will use existing
application features knitted together under a service oriented
architecture.
Now Tesco has put IT at the heart of its global ambition, it is
time for the IT profession to rise to the challenge.
Analysis: Tesco standardisation >>
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