We live in an age where technology increasingly pervades all aspects of life. Technology that was barely imaginable a generation ago is now commonplace. It has had a profound impact on how we organize services in public, private, and voluntary sectors. But all is not well.
Many organizations struggle to justify investment in IT. The reputation of the supply side for delivering late and over budget damages credibility. Reaping the benefits of investment is harder than it first seems. It can often feel like a dialogue of the deaf between the IT professionals and the business leaders. One group talks about SOA, IPv6, SaaS, and SQL for instance, while the other side talks about innovation, transformation, efficiency, and customer service.
The authors of this book bring together many years of experience, reflecting on learning from projects in many sectors. It is their belief that it is in the initiation of dialogue, the communication between the parties, to which ultimately an IT system will be part of the solution, that many of the problems arise.
To illustrate some of the challenges faced, consider a few cameos of problems for which technology solution is sought.
Improving Health
You are asked to build an IT system with two key objectives. First is to support and enhance clinical effectiveness. Second is to improve patient outcomes. The system must support data protection, patient confidentiality, and medical ethics. Explain what the information system is that supports the following patient example.
A woman aged 38 presents herself for fertility treatment. She has been married twice before. Both marriages broke down after failure to produce a child. Last year she met Mr. Right, who wants a child as much as she does. It hasn’t happened. Her younger sister died from breast cancer last year. There has been no family history of breast cancer. She has a BMI of 32. She has black coffee, orange juice, and a banana for breakfast. She has a light lunch and cooks in the evening for herself and her man. They both like fish and don’t eat red meat. She doesn’t smoke. She doesn’t snack between meals. She is a light drinker, 15 units per week. He has a child by a previous relationship but doesn’t see the child, who moved abroad with the mother when the child was very young.
Business Continuity
The increase in tensions following a terrorist attack requires the local authority, police, and regional transport to improve communications with a variety of agencies.
The experience has shown that many businesses were unprepared for the event and there has been a significant loss of business. Some jobs have been lost in the area and this is spilling out into tensions with the ethnic minorities. A capital grant has been allocated to build an IT system to improve communications between all the parties. If successful this system will be rolled out to other towns and cities at risk of terrorist events.
Will the system, when operational and debugged, roll out effectively to a similar sized town with a similar ethnic mix?
Mergers and Acquisitions
A branch-based financial services company acquires a direct sales organization in a complementary field. There is little need to shed jobs. However, the CEO wants to integrate existing infrastructures and build an IT system to maximize any synergies and to create a one company culture. Where do you start?
Advertising
A successful print media, radio, and television advertising consultancy branched out some time ago into Web advertising. The staff was poached constantly and the business hasn’t developed in the way they hoped. A tipping point has been reached in their core business. They believe that they have 2 years to build credibility and a business in online advertising or they will face serious decline. What would you advise?
Values Espoused and in Practice
Company X is a holding company. The chairman and founder buys and sells organizations within the overall corporate structure in diverse market sectors. There is a very small center. All functions are devolved into the operating businesses. The Chairman thinks that next year there will be an economic slowdown, and hires a major consultancy to advise him on reducing his cost base to improve resilience if his fears are realized. He is very close to the consultancy in question. They point out that for an organization of their size they spend twice the level on IT as two organizations that he sees as a benchmark. You are invited to respond to this finding. How do you go about it?
These examples show many of the types of challenges faced in initiating a dialogue between business and IT. Among these challenges is the open ended or vague description of the problem. The solutions require organizational and individual behavior change. Some have complex stakeholder engagements. There are legal, moral, and ethical issues to be dealt with. Building a business case and measuring benefits is tricky. Technology may be a driver rather than a response. The danger is that ” IT is the answer, now what’s the problem.” The focus is often on the T, the technology, and less so on the I, the information.
This book redresses that balance. The thinking framework outlined here is aimed not on the IT system, but on the Information System. It does not seek to replace or nullify the engineering disciplines needed to design and deliver the final solution, but aims to address the need for a common language between business and technology people so that what is achieved is “I have a problem, how can IT help?” That is a bold aim. By building a common language and a shared understanding of the information system between the different stakeholders, the authors argue that many of the frustrations felt around IT can be overcome, to the benefit of the economy and the wider society.