Businesses are constantly seeking new ways to maximise their
profitability and this is never truer than in today's tough
economic times,writes Alan Bowling, chairman of
theSAP UK &
Ireland User Group.
Traditionally, businesses had large IT teams with a complex
range of skills that could keep systems constantly in tune with the
changing needs of the organisation.
However, over the next few years we will see a shift in the
types of businesses that use IT successfully and the ways they use
it. Those that will likely be most successful will be those that
focus on modelling and modifying their business processes rather
than concentrating solely on the technology.
This will have a huge impact on the way organisations run, the
types of skills they need and the role of the IT department. While
this may seem scary to businesses that have invested heavily in
their IT teams, it needn't be.
When done correctly, it can liberate and even elevate the IT
department to play much more of a crucial role in the way the
organisation is run.
Software sophistication
An obvious change that we are already seeing is increasing
software sophistication. As software companies constantly
re-engineer their products to make them easier to use, businesses
need less technical knowledge in-house to keep them running.
For example, in the SAP business process modelling environment
users can drop & drag processes such as invoices on screen and
automatically decide if they want to send them by post or
electronically, therefore streamlining the process and eliminating
the need to pass invoices through to the finance department for
processing.
Over time, software will become so simple and easily customised
by the user, that businesses will no longer need a person with
specific software skills for this purpose.
Changing focus
As a result of software becoming more sophisticated, businesses
will gradually stop focusing on technology and the associated
skills. Instead, successful businesses will shift their focus to
how they would like to run the organisation, how it can be improved
and how business processes can be enhanced or streamlined to make
the company operate more smoothly.
This shift will mean that businesses will need less technical
skills and therefore fewer technically-focused people to run the
information services, or IT environment. Instead, organisations
will use business process consultants to examine how business
functions can be made more efficient and compliant.
Businesses in the future will also start to look at how they
package up their IT services. Already some are starting to adopt a
service-oriented architecture approach and begun re-engineering
their processes. Key to this will be creating reusable code or
services in order to reduce software development time.
What will dictate success?
Whether or not a business can adapt will hinge on the culture of
the company. Businesses that have fixed processes and where
technology is seen as the "nuts and bolts" that allow the company
to function, are less likely to adopt a service-oriented
architecture approach. However, organisations that can quickly
adapt to this type of approach and run with it will have the most
success.
Another cultural impact stands to be the changing role of the
CIO. For example, many of today's CIOs might report into the
finance director, but in the future a business that has changed its
focus to streamlining business processes may well have the CIO
reporting directly to the CEO.
This is because CIOs are in a unique position as all the
company's business processes pass through the IT department,
allowing it to see how each service fits together. This high-level
view of how the organisation functions can allow the CIO to become
highly influential within the business.
The changing role of the IT department
The IT department is ideally placed to become the custodian of
business processes as it understands how different parts of the
company fit together and run.
This means that the traditional role of the IT department will
change significantly. It will be able to use its knowledge of
technical and business processes and how they fit together to look
for and influence how processes and services can be streamlined.
For example, the IT department might bring different departments
around the table to discuss what processes can be made to be more
efficient. It can also drive the conversation about what can be
streamlined based on what services it sees and how they currently
run.
Driving business improvement
While businesses will be forced to adapt at least partially as
software grows more sophisticated, it will be the companies that
embrace this change and shift their focus from technology to
enhancing business processes that will ultimately reap the rewards.
Not only will this help businesses maximise their profitability in
the long run, but it will also benefit the IT department and raise
its profile within the organisation.