✿*SALWA NAJJAH*✿: ICT Within Business

Written by Keith Sherringham

From market cannibalisation of old media by new media through to the deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFI) tagging in aircraft maintenance, businesses know that Information Communication Technology (ICT) can transform operations or make them obsolete.

The challenge of adapting ICT include sustaining current operations, overcoming incumbency, market dynamics, risk management and funding transition. This article looks at some business trends as a result of changes in ICT. In a future edition we will look at how business realises the opportunities that ICT brings.

From the implementation of mainframes and desktops, through to cloud computing and smart phones, business has adapted to changes in Information Communication Technology (ICT). Whilst what a business needs to do change slowly (the need to be customer centric and make a profit), how a business operates (the use of ICT to better service customers) has brought significant rapid change to a business. It is the change in how a business operates, including ICT that, allows a business to remain competitive.

Although ICT has significantly impacted businesses to lower costs, improve service, and standardise processes and operations, the adoption of ICT and resulting business changes has not always been smooth. Some businesses have failed to make changes, others have missed opportunities, and others are reluctant to change due to risk and/or the need to overcome incumbency. The business change around the adoption of ICT starts with an appreciation of the business impacts of changes in ICT.

ICT is business

Irrespective of an individual technology or changes in a technology, common requirements for ICT within the business environment include:

ICT is not an adjunct to business: ICT is business;
ICT present at the business table;
ICT managed and operated as a utility infrastructure to service needs;
ICT being the assembly line for knowledge workers;
ICT showing the business the opportunities, markets and transformation that ICT brings;
ICT providing the knowledge utility for real time decision making to support business.

Command & Control

Changes in ICT, the availability of information and the speed with which decisions need to be made is changing the command and control structure within businesses. Even if the decision makers had all of the information needed at the right time to make a decision, decision makers struggle to find the time to make all of the decisions. The emerging trend is to use ICT to allow for decentralised decision making within frameworks for delivery. The changes in ICT are driving empowerment and problem solving at source. Such changes place a premium on strategy and planning, with a culture of empowerment to manage outcomes and behaviours. Underpinning such a structure are distributed operations with the ability to adapt to changes, to self-heal and create an emergent behaviour. Changes include:

People – Leaders with visions and strategy and the ability to implement and manage such environments. The assurance to support empowered operations is required, together with decision making at source. The required strategies, communication and skilling of staff to work within such structures are necessary.
Process – Adoption of distributed operation business models and the use of frameworks and tools such as enterprise risk management to ensure delivery.
Information – Access to information is key to success, with knowledge being a utility that underpins business.
Transaction Processing

As more transactions are processed by ICT without intervention, the skill set required is changing. Proactive problem solvers are required when things go wrong and to manage exceptions, and to engage with customers to manage expectations. With routine transactions processed by ICT, more skilled resources with excellent communication skills and increasing specialisation are required to address complicated and high worth transactions. A veneer of generalists to work across the resulting silos is also required. Changes include:

People – More skilled resources with critical thinking and proactive problem solving are required. A premium is placed on the professional or soft skills.
Process – Successful processes are engineered from the custom view to deliver outcomes and work across the silos of a business.
Information – Access to information in context integrated with work-flow is required.

Collaboration

Meeting customer needs and delivery of outcomes increasingly requires collaboration across interacting dependencies. Permanent staff, casuals, contractors, out-sourcers, and off-shore resources are increasingly coming together to work across the globe in collaborative teams to address issues as they arrive. The freeing up of staff from routine transaction processing further reinforces the project nature of roles. Changes include:

People – Such environments place a premium on effective communication, coordination and organisational skills and the ability to operate to strategy.
Process – Such environments require management that allow for agility and adaption and the use of process to deliver outcome without process been an end itself.
Information – Integrated communication and knowledge sharing is required in such environments.

Changing Markets

The increasing use of ICT means that products come to market faster, with a decreasing time in the market with offerings being more easily copied and innovated. Changes to the business model like the use of the “value of free” or the use of “how to” are being accommodated. Revision of the sales process to include webinars and podcasts, the need for sticky messages, and the role of the sales to be the trusted adviser in an ocean of choice (solution selling) are all impacting businesses. Changes include:

People – Ability to respond to change and challenges is required, together with the ability to listen and problem solve. The empowerment of an educated and skilled workforce that is trusted to deliver in such an environment is required.
Process – Within dynamic markets, processes need to respond and accommodate change whilst assuring delivery.
Information – The cross-silo management of knowledge is required.

Creativeness, Conversations & Confidence

Changes in ICT create a business environment about global reach with local service. Access to information across devices and channels is required and customer service is about having conversations with customers to solve problems. The fostering and nurturing of analytical thinking and creativity and innovation is required, with a willingness to respond quickly to mistakes and failures. Changes include:

People – Ability to work across channels where and when the opportunity presents is required. Flexibility and professionalism of skilled resources allowing for critical thinking and innovation ensures delivery.
Process – The ability to deliver across channels and devices is necessary, with a tight integration of information to process.
Information – Access to information to facilitate conversation and interaction is required.

Conclusion

This article has looked at some key trends within business as a result of the adoption of ICT. What a business does changes slowly, but the adoption of ICT by business changes rapidly how a business operates. Common impacts from changes in ICT include:

A change from centralised decision making and command and control to decentralised operations forming a customer centric emergent behaviour;
The need for skilled workforce that is empowered to problem solve at source;
Access to the knowledge utility to ensure real time decision making across platforms and channels;
A premium on the professional skills;
The necessary strategy and management frameworks for decentralised decision making and problem resolution at source.

The response of business to these trends is the focus for a follow-up article to be published on the Alinement Network in the near future.

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