When I joined Microsoft, my general manager offered a simple description of my charter – to focus our IT group on doing the right things instead of how we do things right. The right things, in his view, are the things that provide business value to our clients. This seems like a simple task but in a large, global enterprise, it can be surprisingly challenging.
For starters, what constitutes business value? If our client tells us that they want something and it is delivered, isn’t that value? I would argue that it really depends on the nature of the relationship between the IT organization and its business client. Sometimes the business doesn’t have the right perspective on what will deliver the right value.
At my previous company, for example, I was working on a project to improve the relationship that that the company had with some key customers. The executive sponsor listened patiently while we explained our analytical process and then said, “This is great, but for my money, I’d better see a portal.” In a typical business-IT relationship, the IT representative might begin asking what kind of features or requirements are needed for the portal and begin plans for development. The client gets what they want so value is delivered, right?
Well, in this case, we did the analysis and found that these particular customers were highly unlikely to visit a portal. They desired information from the company, but preferred a human interaction. We took back our findings along with recommendations for other solution options that made it easier for these customers to reach a knowledgeable person at the company. The sponsor listened to our analysis and promptly accepted our recommendation and avoided wasting IT dollars on a portal that no one would visit.
This outcome is what I believe both business and IT leaders want from their relationship – ensuring that IT investment dollars are spent on solutions that help the business achieve its business goals – in other words, providing value. Driving this outcome, however, depends on some key assumptions and behaviors:
· Generally, long-term business strategies and goals should inform IT investment priorities
· Both business and IT need to have the discipline to test assumptions and conduct analysis with proper rigor before making solution decisions
· The relationship between IT and its business clients needs to be one of “trusted advisor” as opposed to “order-taker”
This is no small task for typical IT organizations – some business organizations are focused on near-term results and don’t make sufficient investment in articulating their long-term direction. High performance organizations are often quick to leap to solutions rather than invest the time in problem analysis. Many IT groups don’t have the type of relationship in which they are at the table helping to define business strategy and goals.
These challenges and a myriad more are mine as I try to transform the way that Microsoft IT collaborates with our business clients to plan and invest more deliberatively – what I call architecting value. The goal of this blog is to provide a practitioner perspective on how business strategies are translated into executionable plans that deliver value. I hope to share knowledge, best practices, lessons learned, methodologies and frameworks as well as learn from other business and IT planners.
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