Todd Biske: Outside the Box

This presentation was given by Angela Yochem, a Business Information Executive with Dell.

Some trends:

• Reduction in size of IT.
• Move from centralized, global IT to a more decentralized model.

Successful response to these trends require a strong, empowered EA team.

Many companies are going through business transformations, yet we are still in a state where EA and IT are not involved early in the conversations. She queried the audience, and only and handful of people said they were involved from the beginning.

More trends mentioned by Angela include creative bundling and/or packaging of solutions for best value offering to customers, along with new offerings, new pricing models, and new channels. In the discussion around this, she suggested an intellectual exercise for use on April 1. Come up with a business transformation scenario that is just barely within the realm of possibility (or not, she suggested “what if a bank acquired an airline?”) and see how your EA team would respond. Do you have the information you need to respond properly to business change?

Next trend: Increased reliance on technology to enable business transformation. What would it take if your company needed to shift from selling its products to renting your products?

“We must be able to shift with changing/emerging business models.” These intellectual exercises are important for maintaining readiness, because this change is occurring all around us. “Now is the time to prepare – but most IT shops are not in a position to start.” Angela brought up the oft-quoted numbers of how much of IT spend is focused on keeping the lights on instead of new investments.

“Simplifying/globalizing processes are key to reducing IT complexity and increasing agility.”

“Cultural shifts – break reliance on f2f interaction, SMEs, additional funding, and the notion of ownership.”

Invest in business accelerating capabilities. Techniques to do this include developing expertise in business architecture capabilities; investing in acceleration teams, also known as innovation teams or SWAT teams (5-10 people that are funded out of baseline/overhead and find ways to accelerate time to market); and having strong toolsets. Knowledge is power.

Lastly, actively manage your own capabilities and career as you do your IT shop. She gave the analogy of the flight attendant instructions to put on your own oxygen mask before helping those around you. Make sure you are taking care of your own personal capabilities and the opportunities for you on an individual basis.