The Enabling Role of ICT Intro A company

The Enabling Role of ICT

Intro A company that cannot change the way it thinks about ICT cannot reengineer. A company that equates ICT with automation cannot reengineer. A company that looks for problems first and then seeks technology solutions for them cannot reengineer. 2

Intro. . ICT plays a crucial role in business reengineering, but one that is easily miscast. Modern, state of the art ICT is part of any reengineering effort, an essential enabler. But, to paraphrase what is often said about money and government, merely throwing computers at an existing business problem does not cause it to be reengineered. In fact, the misuse of technology can block reengineering altogether by reinforcing old ways of thinking and old behavior patterns. 3

Think Inductively To recognize the power of ICT and to visualize its application requires inductive thinking – ability to recognize a powerful solution and then seeking the problems it might solve. (most managers and executives know how to think deductively- defining a problem then seeking and evaluating different solutions to it !!) 4

Think Inductively The fundamental error that most companies commit when they look at technology is to view it through the lens of their existing processes. They ask, "How can we use these new technological capabilities to enhance or streamline or improve what we are already doing? " Instead, they should be asking, “How can we use technology to allow us to do things that we are not already doing? ” Reengineering, unlike automation, is about innovation. It is about exploiting the latest capabilities of technology to achieve entirely new goals. One of the hardest parts of reengineering lies in recognizing the new, unfamiliar capabilities of technology instead of its familiar ones. 5

Think Inductively An illustration …. teleconferencing. Initially, most organizations saw the value of teleconferencing as a means of reducing travel costs - people would be able to meet without having to fly. In this respect teleconferencing has, by and large, proved a monumental failure; people travel to be with other people for many reasons. That doesn't mean, however, that teleconferencing is without value. It means that its worth lies in transforming how work is done, not in lowering its 6 costs.

Think Inductively The real power of technology is not that it can make the old processes work better, but that it enables organizations to break old rules and create new ways of working—that is, to reengineer. Breaking rules is how people learn to think inductively about technology during the reengineering process: Find the long-standing rule or rules that technology allows the company to break, then see what business opportunities are created by breaking those rules. 7

Think Inductively It is the disruptive power of technology, its ability to break the rules that limit how work is conducted, that makes it critical to companies looking for competitive advantage. Following are some illustrations of additional rules about the organization of work that can be broken by various ICTs, some of them familiar and some state of the art. 8

Think Inductively Old rule: Information can appear in only one place at one time Disruptive technology: Shared databases New rule: Information can appear simultaneously in as many places as it is needed 9

Think Inductively Old rule: Only experts can perform complex work Disruptive technology: Expert systems New rule: A generalist can do the work of an expert 10

Think Inductively Old rule: Businesses must choose between centralization and decentralization Disruptive technology: Telecommunications networks New rule: Businesses can simultaneously reap the benefits of centralization and decentralization 11

Think Inductively Old rule: Field personnel need offices where they can receive, store, retrieve, and transmit information Disruptive technology: Wireless communication and portable computers New rule: Field personnel can send and receive information wherever they are 12

Conclusion Further advances in technology will break more rules about how business is conducted. Exploiting the potential of technologies to change a company's business processes and move it dramatically ahead of its competitors is not a one - time event. Nor is it something a company can do occasionally. On the contrary, staying on top of new technology and learning how to recognize and incorporate it into an organization must be an ongoing effort - no different from research and development or marketing. It takes a practiced eye and imaginative mind to spot the potential 13

Conclusion Companies need to make technology exploitation one of their core competencies if they are to succeed in a period of ongoing technological change. Those better able to recognize and realize the potentials of new technology will enjoy a continuing and growing advantage over their competitors. 14

Conclusion Companies cannot see or read about a new technology today and deploy it tomorrow. It takes time to study it, to understand its significance, to conceptualize its potential uses, to sell those uses inside the company, and to plan the deployment. An organization that can execute these preliminaries before the technology actually becomes available will inevitably gain a significant lead on its competition. 15

Conclusion As an essential enabler in reengineering, ICT has an importance to the reengineering process that is difficult to overstate. But companies need to beware of thinking that technology is the only essential element in reengineering. To reengineer a company is to take a journey from the familiar into the unknown. This journey has to begin somewhere and with someone. Where and with whom? Read next topics! 16