Putting
Information Technology in its Place
Revalyst™ : Measure, Mentor
The
thing about information technology that is both daunting and encouraging is
that (1) it needs to be managed and (2) that it can be managed. However naive
we might have all been, we are now starting to ask the right questions, demand
the right answers and expect more from IT and the IT industry than what we have
been getting to date. IT is costly, yet for all the investment it’s clear that
in many cases we over spend for the “wrong stuff” and under spend for the
“right stuff”. The simple reality is that most organizations, particularly
small and medium sized enterprises SME’s are not happy with IT, nor are they
recognizing the promise that is continuously put forth by industry. Furthermore
the underlying exposure to risk is growing exponentially. Although we like to
segregate risks from a discussion standpoint, IT risk, is business risk,
period. Let’s yank out your computers and see how long the business thrives –
what’s the countdown to Armageddon, 1 hour, 1 day, 3 days a week.
Revalyst™
is a very powerful knowledge based product that allows SME’s and larger
decentralized organizations to manage their businesses by making use of
repeatable and highly efficient assessment and management tools aligned with
key corporate themes. Analyst for™ IT is an example of a very practical way of
taming IT and putting it in its place. It’s an expert in a box approach that’s
laced with common sense. It’s well researched in context knowledge - highly
usable and highly beneficial.
If
you are an owner or manager you should be using Revalyst™ to regain control of
your organization. Analyst for™ IT will allow your internal IT person or prime,
your IT consultant or outsourcer, even your accountant or controller, to
provide you with a “state of the union” understanding of your IT risks and
opportunities. Management tools will allow you to stay informed, understand
your areas of exposure and opportunities for improvement. Accountants are
particularly adept at performing basic IT assessments, as they are relatively
more technologically in the know, have good audit/assessment skills and are
particularly risk averse.
Outside
IT consultants can be used when you want a comprehensive assessment. There is
the danger of the assessment being self-serving, but in general you will find
that many IT people, either internal or external, will be quite receptive and
forthcoming in any assessment, as they are equally interested in a stable and
productive environment. What they lack is an organized and efficient way to assess
and communicate exposure and opportunity in a practical, meaningful way.
Speaking
of efficiencies, Revalyst™ allows you to launch Web based employee surveys
associated with end user IT assessment issues. Not only is this a practical
approach to performing assessments, but it’s also the correct business and
cultural thing to be doing. Employees are fundamental to IT improvement. They
have to have a voice or they will become disenfranchised. Employee feedback is
a good measure of IT health. In a world where employees are more apt to leave
an organization because of hassle and stress, computing has become an important
human resource concern.
Employees
also need leadership. They need to know corporate policy, procedure and
process. It needs to accessible, relevant and easy to understand. It also has
to evolve. Evolution is based on critical input. That is why Revalyst™ provides
a web based policy procedure and process engine called Knowledge for™. It is
pre-populated with starting point documents that will serve as the basis for
your further improvement. Employees will be able to access documents, can be automatically
notified when they change and can efficiently provide input on improvement
through a private or public discussion capability.
In
a way, Revalyst™ is a multi-personality suite of products. Part knowledge
management, part electronic book, part web portal/intranet, part expert in a
box - Revalyst™ is a client advocacy product, a “Ralph Nader” approach to
management. It’s intended to promote organizational health. The ROI on
Revalyst™ is staggering and almost beyond measure. It has two winning attributes
to it in that it uniquely represents two value propositions – insurance and
investment. These are difficult to quantify and measure but ultimately common
sense prevails and the obvious becomes clear. Revalyst™ preserves and promotes
enterprise health. Ultimately it is about achieving continuous improvement
through the transformation of knowledge into utility.
The
following is a summary of key areas of IT concern. Analyst for™ IT covers these
and other areas of concern.
Disaster
Recovery
Let’s
face it, it’s not a matter of “if”, it’s a matter of “when”. With near total
dependency on computers, who can afford not to be able to quickly recover from
a partial or completely catastrophic event? Even low-tech businesses are
approaching total dependency. What good is making something if you can’t ship
it because you can’t make up a bar coded packing slip that is demanded by your
customer or a waybill demanded by customs or the logistics company. We are
increasingly losing our ability to substitute manual solutions for integrated
technology solutions. More and more, customers and even suppliers dictate how
we fit into their ecosystem. So the question is, what are you doing to reduce
the requirement for disaster recovery and what are you doing to decrease the
impact of a disaster? How can you improve your ability to recover with the
least impact to customers, employees and suppliers and indeed your financial
health?
Consistency
Total
cost of ownership or TCO is the tag that the industry places on information
technology. One of the biggest contributors to TCO is the lack of standards or
consistency in hardware, software, configuration, policy, procedure and
process. A major objective in IT is to try and retain as much compatibility as
possible. A lack of consistency and compatibility can render a business
uncompetitive.
Information
Broad
label, but think about information as an asset and you’ll understand the
importance. It needs to be organized appropriately. It needs to be retrieved
easily – and by the right people. It needs to be leveraged by productive
efficiencies – ie naming conventions, templates, macros, versioning,
identification of authors and purpose. It needs to be archived with a plan – in
a very deliberate and practical way so that it will have continuing value.
Environmental
Simple
right, make it ok for humans and it should be ok for equipment and peripherals.
Wrong. Static, surges, spikes, brown outs, humidity, sprinkler systems,
vibration, accidental contact and flooding are just some of the considerations
and variables that need to be controlled. This is perhaps the most overlooked
area of concern that is the easiest to rectify. Yet it can be absolutely
devastating. Companies will spend thousands on preventing theft and will only
spend a fraction on environmental concerns. A simple static charge can
irreparably damage the motherboard on a server in a nanosecond or corrupt data
on a hard drive.
Custom
Software
In
a world of 1,000,000 software titles, why have custom software? Presuming that
you do in fact have unique requirements or that you have defined a unique
competitive opportunity that justifies custom software, what steps have you
taken to ensure your ownership rights? Have you set yourself up for perpetual
costs? What about the quality of the software, the vendor, the documentation?
What of the future improvement stream, compatibility, vulnerability of the
platform choice? Custom software is quite different from a custom home. Even a
poorly designed and constructed custom home can be liveable. Poorly defined and
constructed software can be completely unusable - a total loss of the
investment.
Internet
The
Internet can be a highly beneficial conduit for many aspects of business. It
can also expose you to intrusion by outsiders, open your business to external
improprieties and impact your employee productivity through miss use, addiction
and distraction. Some statistics are so alarming, many businesses have adopted
draconian measures ranging from no-access to highly monitored and punitive
management approaches.
Viruses
Exposure
to viruses, worms, trojans, cookies and other privacy breakers is escalating in
terms of volume and in terms of sophistication. It is now technically possible
to place infection patterns in graphic files and to put in place, peer to peer
propagation that will run rampant globally before any patches to major
commercial virus definitions can be created, let alone deployed. Even with
conventional threats, companies consistently get hit and suffer significant
financial loss on a regular basis. The worst strategy is the partial solution.
This is an area where you have absolutely no room for neglect and the weakest
link in the chain will be the point of infection and propagation.
Employee
Somehow
IT people seem to forget the Employee. This is absolutely mind-boggling. Our
entire beneficial or productive basis for technology is based on the human
experience and interaction with technology.
Ergonomics, training, performance, accessibility and the quality of the
computing experience are just some of the issues. It is illogical and downright
absurd to employ anyone without taking into account productivity, job
satisfaction and health. Whether an employee is paid 20K or 100K is immaterial.
Computer rage is rampant, far worse than road rage and the entire viability of
any business is based on the employee foundation.
Security
and Access
With
information becoming an increasingly important aspect of business valuation
it’s not surprising that we are also becoming increasingly aware of threats.
Forever gone is the simplicity of the key and the cabinet. Ignoring Enron, it
used to be tough, if not impossible, to accidentally shred complete cabinets of
information without consciously knowing what your were doing. Now a user can
inadvertently delete an entire directory or volume of information without ever
realizing the impact of doing so. Internal mistakes are as catastrophic as
external threats. More importantly, trade secrets represent a substantial
portion of what a company is worth. Ex-employees and competitors can have a hay
day with overt exposure of intellectual assets. Stealing documents from a
filing room may have been difficult or awkward in the past - now it is a
relative breeze – and forget documents, you can fit most of the key company
information on one device, hard disk, DVD, tape or a series of CD’s.
Email
Email
is a mixed blessing technology. It has the unique ability to either be a highly
productive median or a huge productivity hit. It can also overexpose a company
to a number of related risks from security to privacy to viruses. Personal use
Email is both a productive challenge and etiquette in Email is generally not
practiced and is actually seldom preached. This is ironic given our extensive
use of Email as a key method of communications. Consider that each Email used
to be a letter or a phone call. Unlike a phone call, Email creates an
electronic copy of the conversation, and unlike a letter, Email creates a
history. Employers and employees have to be cognizant of the tracks they are
leaving and make sure that there is no potential negative future use of such
information. Equally troubling is the rampant use of attachments that can lead to
a versioning nightmare. Consider out of date price lists, legal agreement forms
and policy documents etc. Multiply the problem, by the number of employees and
you can easily have a very confusing business environment.
Web Site
Web
sites are great for communicating to existing and prospective customers. They
are also open to everyone including your competition. Would be customers can
easily be turned off by broken links, difficult navigation and incomplete
information. Furthermore, Web publishing can often be considered an after
thought, out of sync with current documents, pricing etc. It is important to
define Web sites in the context of benefit and purpose and not in terms of X
dollars per month. Intranets and Extranets require the same perspective. Most
are not consciously built based on strategy. Many companies have had an
Internet, Intranet and Extranet strategy for many years. Yet their web site
strategy has been to be underexposed. Many of their customers have benefited from
their Extranet and all employees have benefited from their Intranet. Yet to the
outside world they have progressively migrated from no story to a thin story to
a more complete story. Their visibility coincides with their product
development and their deliberate intention to stay under the competitive radar.
This is a correct web strategy given this company’s situation. The point is,
strategy should drive your web site not ego or compelling technological
capability.
Ecommerce
Ecommerce
and it’s many facets is a compelling opportunity, plagued with significant
risks. Many early adopters of Ecommerce discovered the consequences of rampant
fraud, high cost integration, lack of trading partners and stretched
back-office anxieties (ie logistics). Issues from transaction integration,
multi-currency, multi-lingual, payment processing, transaction clearing,
affiliate tracking and rewards, fulfillment, insurance, and merchandise returns
are not that simple. Ecommerce, whether it’s B2B or B2C or some other derivative,
is a complex business application. Strategy and objectives play important
roles. There is nothing easy about Ecommerce. It is a deep and challenging area
of business with more upside than downside.
An Ongoing Trusted Relationship
Each
of these areas of concern has a myriad of deeper issues. Most of them have been
authored and researched on the basis of being a generic concern. In addition,
Revalyst™ allows you to author industry or vertically specific IT issues and
make them part of your continuous assessment and improvement model. Unlike a
book, Revalyst™ is ever evolving, through our continuously updated content
publishing, and your specific additions and improvements that are unique to
your situation.
Revalyst™,
Analyst for™, Knowledge for™ and Survey for™ are trademarks of Future Path
Development Group Inc.