MARKET DRIVERS

MARKET DRIVERS

   10:04 AM       Rizkooblogsite

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Why is information systems process management important now? What are the market drivers? The META Group (a research company) identified process improvement as a key trend in its 1999 trends for IT Performance Engineering and Measurement Strategies. Specifically, META predicted that in 1999 and 2000, software process improvement and quality programs would continue to stagnate, enabling only micro-level progress on It productivity and quality. However, by 2001 and 2002, they predicted that It will focus on performance engineering as the preferred approach for achieving performance improvements, and by 2002 and 2003, performance engineering approaches will improve productivity and quality to new levels. There are many forces creating this need for process improvement within Information Systems.

• Electronic commerce, e-business, and the Internet. As companies leverage the use of Intranets and Extranets, there will be an additional need for Information Systems to understand and link
  
  with the processes of other departments within the company. With the advent of e-business and technology our information systems processes are moving closer to and impacting the end customer. In the past, business processes could mask the inadequacies of our information systems processes. For example, if the system was down when a customer called to place an order, the customer service representative could take the information down on paper and call the customer back with a delivery date. Likewise, if the system was not developed properly to fit the business needs, the customer service agent could translate as information was input into the system. With customers placing orders directly into corporate systems, as is done with e-business, any outage in the system or inaccurate design can directly affect the customer. Technology is becoming an integral part of day-to-day business and impacting the success of the business.

• Performance demands. Today, executives are sensitive to total cost of ownership, poor and lengthy application development, and performance issues with systems. Executives are demanding that Information Systems improve their methods and increase overall efficiency and effectiveness of the organization by implementing best practices. There is pressure to do more with less, reduce operating costs, and increase end customer satisfaction. As technology progresses in an organization, users of the technology are becoming more engaged, informed, and demanding. Processes such as Problem Management, Inventory and Asset Management, Change Management, and Understand Requirements are just a few of the processes that may not be well understood or documented within an Information Systems organization.
• Changing technology. The identification and implementation of new information technologies can be an outcome of successful process management. Today, there is an abundance of tools and technologies available on the market to assist in automating information systems processes, such as Help Desk call management software, change management software, and systems management software. These tools can be costly and take time to implement. Many companies have tried to implement the tools and have failed because they applied the technology without understanding and reengineering the process using the technology.
• Reliability demands: Companies today are using technology to provide them with a competitive advantage and market dominance. Growing numbers of companies are implementing technology tightly linked with core business processes. These critical systems must provide guaranteed round-the-clock reliability and scalability (ability to grow with the company to support the business operations). As the core applications become the very livelihood of the business, there is no tolerance for application down time. Internet companies are a prime example of this. Just a few hours of system down time can cause millions of dollars of lost revenue and influence the price of the stock and earnings per share. Fundamental information systems processes such as Availability Management, Capacity Management, Change Control, and Problem Management must be functioning properly to ensure consistent, reliable service and deliver high levels of application availability.
• Interdependence. Business solutions today are dependent on many different pieces that must function together. In the early years, with a mainframe and terminal, troubleshooting was less complex. Today, with client/server solutions, the problem may be on the PC, network, server, main server, database, router, or any number of other areas. As a user, there is nothing more frustrating than being in an organization that reports 99.9 percent availability of their system and yet constantly experiences system down time. To a user, the system is unavailable, whether it is a desktop application or a network issue. Information systems processes and metrics must operate end to end and across organizational boundaries to be effective.
• Enterprise Requirements Planning (ERP). Many companies recently invested significantly in new ERP systems to solve their year 2000 issues. Companies that have experienced the pain and expense of these implementations will be looking at process improvements as a means of finding additional value for their investment.
• Outsourcing. Although the outsourcing movement has made many Information Systems organizations nervous, it is, in fact, an admission by company personnel (usually out of frustration) that they cannot internally produce quality information systems services efficiently and effectively. They turn to outsourcing as a possible answer and catalyst for change to improve the efficiency (or cost, typically) and effectiveness. The outsourcing pronouncements by many organizations are wake-up calls to Information Systems organizations that they must start improving their services or their very survival can be threatened. It is sad to see organizations resort to outsourcing as their only alternative, as information systems can be a competitive advantage if functioning properly. Even if an organization must turn to outsourcing, it is much easier (and less expensive) to outsource a process-based organization.
• Globalization. In order to be competitive, companies are finding they must stretch their business across the globe. E-business is also forcing this worldwide movement, because there are no boundaries in cyberspace. Processes must cross over continents and be transparent to the customer, no matter where they are physically in the world.
• Regulatory requirements. ISO 9000 audits that focus on defined procedures and processes now include the scope of Information Systems. For many Information Systems organizations, processes and procedures are a new concept, because they may be in a firefighting survival mode. When the internal ISO auditors turn to Information Systems, they often find a tremendous lack of documentation and defined processes.
• Labor issues. The short supply of information systems professionals has raised labor costs and requires companies to be more effective in using these costly resources. In the study by Jones, chairman of Software Productivity Research., Inc., in Burlington, Massachusetts, 60 percent of the U.S. software workforce is engaged in fixing errors that would be avoidable if total quality management practices were implemented. If that number is accurate, quality software development processes could lead to a surplus of more than one million personnel, rather than the huge shortage of personnel claimed throughout the industry. In other words, valuable resources are being mismanaged. A process methodology and proper documentation are also methods for companies to sustain through many cycles of information systems staff turnover. Process documentation can also ensure that resources are used efficiently so an expensive technical resource is not doing a function that could be performed by someone else (for example, a database administrator standing in line at the copy machine).
  
• End of Year 2000: With the year 2000 issue resolved, companies will have to begin defining new initiatives that require improved processes. Many companies will also be reducing information systems costs and will need to focus internally to improve their overall efficiency and effectiveness. As shown in Figure 1.5, there are numerous market drivers encouraging or even dictating improved information systems processes. As global competition increases and technology becomes more critical in business, efficient and effective information systems processes are no longer a competitive advantage, but a fundamental necessity to sustain business and promote growth.