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| Technology - Precision Alignment Of Business And Technology |
Atul Mathur
07/20/2005
Introduction
Business and technology continue to remain misaligned because their
evolutionary cycles differ. Business is driven by constant competition
and reduced cycle time while technological advances and continuous
improvements drive information technology (IT). Alignment of Business
and IT occurs when their respective evolutionary cycles coincide. The
need for alignment is a continuous struggle where change is the only
constant. This constant focus on change is an inherent quality of a
competitive enterprise.
In this article we try to give you an
overview of 4pi™ (pronounced four-p-i) — Blue Canopy’s proprietary
solution for IT service delivery that creates “glass pipelineâ€
visibility among all service participants and helps achieve sustained
Business and IT alignment. Increasing specialization in IT and the
abundance of global resources require a large number of geographically
dispersed specialists to work cooperatively. Blue Canopy’s 4pi™
provides the framework for orchestration of world-class service
delivery on a global scale.
Background
Problems in IT service delivery abound to the point that role of CIO as
a business manager is questioned. Why is IT so difficult and why can’t
it be managed like any other business function such as human resources,
sales, payroll, etc? Why can’t IT be managed with predictable ROI and
cash flow? These questions have mired executives for a long time. In
order to manage sustained Business and IT alignment, you need to
properly respond to the following mega trends while meeting the needs
of the business:
. Globalization: Increasing abundance of skilled IT resources in lower-cost economies
.
Specialization: Technology proliferation creating a wave of IT
specialists – individual resources or specialty 3rd-parties
.
Commoditization: Treatment of IT as “table stakes†as discussed in
Nicholas Carr’s article in Harvard Business Review last year
. Outsourcing: Business requiring IT managers to reduce cost and increase quality by utilizing 3rd-party specialty vendors
4piâ„¢ Framework
4piâ„¢ (4th-Party Integrator) addresses the IT mega trends discussed
above (globalization, specialization, commoditization, and outsourcing)
to accomplish Business and IT alignment on a sustained basis. It is
implemented utilizing the following approach.
Step 1: Identifying Participants in a Service Chainâ„¢
As globalization and specialization force you to include global
participants for IT service delivery, multiple moving parts must be
managed to a common goal. Multiple specialists around the globe,
outside your organization, present both opportunities and risks. The
opportunities are the reason you have selected the specialty partners,
but risks are inherent because this approach involves multiple players,
processes and “moving partsâ€. These “moving parts†are managed by
looking at the critical handoffs and interdependencies among all
service providers in the service supply chain (Service Chainâ„¢).
The challenge of service delivery is exacerbated when the Service
Chainâ„¢ links participants that are geographically dispersed. In 4piâ„¢,
an integrated Process Network connects the processes of multiple
organizations in the Service Chainâ„¢ to identify the visible elements of
the enterprise regardless of the service provider location.
Step 2: Creating Visibility through the “Glass Pipelineâ€
A Process Network is a mechanism to create visibility for all
participants. Typically organizations have limited visibility into
downstream service providers’ performance because they tend to keep
service providers at “arm’s lengthâ€. Keeping this distance prevents
organizations from becoming more agile.
Black Box:
Organization has no visibility around their 3rd-party providers, either
by design or because of poor service level management. Business users
feel the impact of poor IT service management and the IT organization
is perceived negatively for failure to manage their service providers
effectively.
Limited Visibility:
At this stage, service providers have implemented some checks and
balances along with early warning systems. These indicators are at the
macro level for which brute-force mitigation may be possible.
Full Visibility:
At this stage, you have linked your enterprise with the service
providers and there is point-to-point visibility from the enterprise
perspective. The service providers usually do not have the needed
visibility up and down the Service Chainâ„¢ and any provider
interdependencies require substantial involvement or arbitration.
Organizations that outsource macro-level business functions, such as
billing, infrastructure, and help desk, can afford to operate at this
level.
Glass Pipeline Visibility: At
this final stage, you have essentially created a connected enterprise
for the performance of IT service. The participants are connected
upstream and the enterprise is linked downstream. Each participant has
full visibility throughout the Service Chainâ„¢, including all point-to
point interfaces. With this visibility, you have the opportunity to
optimally involve participants that are specialists and perform highly
interdependent functions (e.g. different service providers in software
development for application development, quality assurance, application
deployment, etc.).
In this mode, there is full adherence to the
created Process Network and the Service Management Office (SMO) becomes
the orchestrator of the service delivery symphony. The Glass Pipeline
creates an interconnected enterprise with full visibility.
Conclusions
Increasing specialization and cost advantages are forcing IT
organizations to source services from a variety of providers. 4piâ„¢ is
Blue Canopy’s offer to link, manage, and optimize performance of these
service providers along the entire Service Chainâ„¢. 4piâ„¢ helps
organizations achieve business and IT alignment by focusing on the
business and the management of services in a completely unique way.
4piâ„¢ achieves IT services management by monitoring the heartbeat of service quality throughout the Service Chainâ„¢.
For more information please visit http://www.bluecanopy.com.
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