41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting monograph on the state of IT, September 17, 2003
This review is from: IT Doesn't Matter-Business Processes Do: A Critical Analysis of Nicholas Carr's I.T. Article in the Harvard Business Review (Paperback)
Smith and Fingar present an interesting monograph on the current state, and future possibilities, of IT.
Their premise is that IT, as we know it is over, Business Process Management (BPM) represents the next wave of corporate computing. They do a good job of defining IT but never do they adequately define BPM. We are told what it isn't; it's not data, it's not hardware or software, and it's not Web services. But what is it? It is loosely defined, first, as a value-chain that encompasses suppliers and then as the white space between the boxes on an organization chart (referencing Rummler's terrific book on managing process).
Regardless, I believe they make a valid argument. It's not how many servers you have, it's about how you're using the data and applications to make money and trounce the competition.
But Carr also makes valid arguments, after all, who screws things up like IT? Who would think that in this day and age we still have runaway IT projects and projects that lack business value? There is a dearth of business sense among IT managers and there are too many business managers who find computers a mystery and abdicate business decisions to IT managers.
At times the book becomes strident and takes on the spirit of a manifesto. The section on IT investments, and how they're going to soar again, references a science fiction writer and talk show host as sources. Later on, Smith and Fingar lament that Carr's article will destroy economic growth by giving CEOs justification for withholding IT investment. Perhaps the silver lining here is that vendors will offer products and services that add business value and IT and business managers will have to make solid business arguments to justify purchases.
What is implicit but not explicitly stated in this book or Carr's article is the importance of governance: businesses must articulate strategy and align IT with that strategy. Organizations must select and manage IT projects as business projects managed by capable and IT savvy business leaders and business savvy IT managers. This will distinguish those firms that can effectively utilize IT resources from those that cannot.
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
good information for business strategists, September 12, 2003
This review is from: IT Doesn't Matter-Business Processes Do: A Critical Analysis of Nicholas Carr's I.T. Article in the Harvard Business Review (Paperback)
As anyone who is responsible for strategic IT planning can tell you, it's a new dawn in IT these days - especially as IT spending relates to improved business efficiencies and the bottom line. While Carr's HBR article is a simplistic and flawed interpretation of where IT is heading, Smith and Fingar present a well thought and presented, point by point analysis of, not only what is wrong with Carr's misguided vision, but also solutions offered by new directions in IT of paramount importance to strategic corporate management. A significant element of my company's competitive edge came from developing advanced business processes, so we are already up to speed on the directions towards business process management espoused by Smith and Fingar. I do, however, know of many examples of companies and organizations that might be looking for excuses to minimize their IT expenditures due to problems with previous flawed IT strategies and execution. For those companies, Carr's article might provide the perfect justification to retrench. This book, on the other hand, is for forward thinking strategists who are looking to optimize and innovate to maintain and improve their efficiency and competitive edge.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Springtime for IT/BPM? Better gardening tools needed..., September 2, 2003
This review is from: IT Doesn't Matter-Business Processes Do: A Critical Analysis of Nicholas Carr's I.T. Article in the Harvard Business Review (Paperback)
Contrary to what some might suspect, this is not simply a thinly veiled attempt to plug their recently published book, even though it does essentially repurpose much of the content to make their case. However, the vision Smith and Fingar paint of a Business Process Management (BPM) future as counterpoint to Nicholas Carr's HBR article should perhaps be more appropriately called Business Process Magic, and even if the future they deify is less than five years away (difficult to believe) their vision does little or nothing to solve the real pain today. The fact that standards have been developed, frankly doesn't mean they'll ever be widely used, except, perhaps, for marketing purposes by those involved in developing, selling and profiting from them (Microsoft, IBM anyone?). And, just because something is "enterprise," doesn't mean it has to be complex, confusing and expensive, does it? Some things to consider when evaluating the IT/BPM near-future (or more accurately, your business pain today):
1. IT departments are not the customer.
Smith and Fingar go to great lengths to explain what Carr did and did not mean by "IT," ultimately deciding he meant the industry, not IT specialists (IT departments, including the CIO). The truth is, IT departments may provide the backbone, the infrastructure, to the enterprise, but they are not the brains. That is, they are not the subject matter experts (SMEs) who perform the day-to-day transactions that define the enterprise's business value (even Smith and Fingar estimate 80% of enterprise processes should be managed by business users, not IT). This is not to condemn IT specialists (just as programmers generally shouldn't design UIs, UI designers generally shouldn't write code). Despite years of aligning IT with business, the sensibilities are just too different. Smith and Fingar seem to be committed to helping internal IT redefine itself into being something greater than it needs to or should be, ultimately causing overlap and redundancy with other senior management. The COO/CFO and ultimately HR will own the future of process management because, like it or not, humans are the critical components - IT is simply the enabler. IT will support things automated, but should never define requirements (or even build the systems if the software is designed well enough) unless it is their own internal processes (where they are the SMEs).
2. Cost matters.
There is little mention of the cost of implementing existing or future BPM systems, but in Smith and Fingar's universe it ain't gonna be cheap. Kodak spent 1 billion dollars implementing an ERP system, and that's just a piece of the BPM puzzle. Why so much? Because 20-50% of IT costs (estimates vary) are integration costs, tying systems together at the code level. Consider this - if 80% of processes should be managed by business users, is all that integration really needed? Perhaps there's an easier way.
3. Don't carboload on consulting.
Implicit in both their books, consulting appears to be an eternal given. It doesn't have to be - not if the tools are truly usable. Consultants don't know your business - they know the toolset, and they excel at holding hands. You know your business. If the software is really designed to be used by business users, then USE it. Get your hands dirty, document your processes, then let your employees interact with them. Analyze the usage. Then think about bringing in consultants if and when problems start to emerge (or read a book on process, you might just fix it yourself!).
4. It's all about usability.
The bottom line - if Carr is right and IT has truly been commoditized, then the sole critical differentiator is ease of use. And if Smith and Fingar truly believe business users must use BPM software hands-on to maximize impact, it not only has to be easy to use, but logical, and aligned visually and semantically with relevant and meaningful metaphors. The outlook today? Usability is painfully adequate in most desktop and web apps (score points for Carr) but still highly questionable for IT department-centric server apps (regardless what Smith and Fingar claim, I'm from Missouri on this one).
Finally, full disclosure - my company, ... has developed a business operating system does solve real pain and is available today. ...enables business users to use their own business processes to organize people, applications and information. And yes, it's easy to use, reasonably priced and out of the box.
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