Six IT decisions your IT people shouldnt make

Its very difficult to run a company without IT, infact one cannot imagine running a company without an investment in IT. But how to get a right return of your investment is a million dollar question??? . As per the author the IT executives are good for making IT decisions but not the decisions which will impact the Business strategy of the company.A lot depends upon the decision taken by Senior Management on the same, there are six IT decisions which one should consider before making any investments, 3 are related to Strategy and the rest three related to Execution. Strategy Decisions 1. How much should be spend on It ? The goal to be achieved and the role being played by IT should be very clear and precise.eg. Fedex and UPS 2. Which business process should receive our IT dollars? Fund only those It strategy that will further your strategy. Eg. Delta Air lines 3. Which IT capabilities should be firmwide? There is always a trade-off between the IT capability and the flexibility that can be given using these capabilities. Eg: Johnson and Johnson Execution Decisions 1. How good your IT services need to be? Depending upon the business requirement the funds should be invested in IT system i.e. whether to make it more efficient, reliable, quick etc. 2. What security and privacy risks will we accept? There is always a trade-off between convenience and the privacy, one should be very clear on that before implementation like for Banks privacy of data is most important factor. 3. Whom do we blame if an IT initiative fails? The IT department should be held responsible for delivering the efficient system but the business executives should be responsible for making the necessary organizational change to reap the benefit of the IT investment.

Getting IT Right
Most of the top executives ignore IT spending. The IT dept. is left unsupervised which results in development of multiple complex IT systems which have no integration i.e. they dont even talk to each other. This becomes a costly mess. There are three principles suggested which if followed rigorously might result into better profits: 1. Develop a long term IT Strategic Plan which should focus on the strategic view of the company and how to reap the benefits of IT in long term. E.g. Frito La ys - Paper based data processing system to hand held devices. 2. Create a unifying technology platform which should serve the entire organization rather than making complex systems for each department. Eg implementation of

ERP system by most of the companies these days. A centralized IT system pan world by Delta Airlines 3. Cultivate high functioning Culture IT dept. should be integrated with the entire company.

Competing on Analytics
Analytics is the key differentiating factor from competitors. It helps in tracking, predicting and forecasting of future inventories, calculate exact work force required, their contribution, compensation etc. Analytics should be part of competitive strategy to make the right decisions at every level. To become an analytics competitor 1. Champion analytics from top One should prepare its organization and its workforce to become an analytics focused organization, one should also possess the good understanding of the theory behind the quantitative methods being used. 2. Create a single analytics initiative Under common leadership with common platform all the data related activities to be performed to avoid any inconsistencies. 3. Focus your analytics effort- Channelize the effort and implementation of analytics to the focussed approach as per the companys business requirement and strategy. 4. Establish an analytics culture- Develop an analytics culture where each decision should be made on facts and figures. 5. Hire the right people - Hire analysts who possess quantitative-analysis skills, can present ideas precisely, and can interact productively with decision makers. 6. Use Right technology There should be proper integration of the IT systems in an organization as well as investments should be on the right technology.