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My cable TV system recently deployed on-demand technology, and I am a fan. I can now watch a movie and fast-forward through the boring dialogue and go straight for the action scenes. Just this week I watched The Last Samurai. By fast-forwarding to the action scenes (and skipping the dialogue), I saw the two-plus-hour movie in 35 minutes.
One of the action scenes hit home. The samurai spent centuries perfecting the art of war. They trained and honed their skills and directly influenced the political structure of Japan. In the final action scene, the samurai are attacking the invading army and moving like hot knives through butter. Then the invading army pulls the covers off its Gatling guns and opens fire. The capabilities of the samurai are no match for the new technology of rapidly firing bullets.
This got me thinking about our capabilities as IT leaders. Are technologies around the corner that will make our business models obsolete? If so, how quickly can we help our organizations adapt?
The Agile Imperative
Too many times I've had the following experience: In a management team meeting, we'll discuss a new line of business or an essential initiative. I'll think through the implications of the new project and groan. IT will either suboptimize or block the organization's ability to deliver; we lack the ability to adapt quickly to changing business needs.
And I fear that the increasing pace of technological change will create this situation frequently. (Technological advances trigger new advances, which in turn trigger new advances.) Perhaps the most important capability to develop within myself and among my staff is to the ability to quickly select and implement technological advancements. Can I distill my role down to making IT agile and adaptive?
Streamlining for Agility
If I want to make IT more agile, I believe I have to do two things. First, I need to simplify and streamline my current systems and processes. It's likely that we have built so much complexity into these systems that we need to minimize complexity over time. Whenever someone requests a system enhancement, it becomes an opportunity to streamline the application and infrastructure. (For an approach that brings business users
onboard, see "The Route to IT Heaven: Differentiating Projects," CIO Decisions, September 2005.
Several years ago, for example, we built a complex multidimensional pricing engine, which the sales department recently asked us to update. We analyzed which dimensions applied to which customers and learned that our worst customers use the most complex parts of the engine. Our best customers, by contrast, have simple purchasing rules. We eliminated most of the engine and now use simple pricing rules.
Second, I need to establish a process to experiment with technologies and then quickly determine which of those technologies benefit the organization. We need to include business users who might see uses that we would miss. Business users can attend conferences or meet with software vendors to discuss product roadmaps.
If I'm correct about the importance of selecting and implementing technology, we might avoid the fate of the samurai. We can look forward to the time when we get ahead of technology. Besides, this approach might help kill some of the legacy systems that have nagged at us for years.
Niel Nickolaisen is CIO and vice president of strategic planning at Headwaters Inc. in South Jordan, Utah. To comment on this story, email editor@searchcio-midmarket.com.
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