Strategic Alignment Matrices
- 1. Choudhary Aitzaz Ahsan Strategic Alignment Matrices
- 2. 11-2 • Discuss the role of planning in the business use of information technology, using the scenario approach and planning for competitive advantage as examples • Discuss the role of planning and business models in the development of business/IT strategies, architectures, and applications • Identify several change management solutions for end user resistance to the implementation of new IT-based business strategies and applications Learning Objectives
- 3. 11-3 Planning Fundamentals • IT created a seismic shift – Just knowing the importance and structure of e-business is not enough – Must be able to transform an old business design to a new e-business design
- 4. 11-4 RWC 1: IT/Business Alignment • One Goal – Winning Customers – Every executive – Every manager – Every employee • Critical Skills – Meeting or beating goals – External customer focus – Identifying and seizing commercial opportunities • Differentiating component – IT Capability – More than providing systems – Be part of the system
- 5. 11-5 Components of Organizational Planning
- 6. 11-6 Scenario Approach • Gaining popularity • Less formal • Virtual world (microworld) exercises • Business scenarios are created and evaluated • Alternative scenarios are then created
- 8. 11-8 Trends that Affect Strategic Planning
- 10. 11-10 SWOT Analysis • Strengths – Core competencies and resources • Weaknesses – Areas of substandard business performance • Opportunities – Potential for new business markets or innovative breakthroughs • Threats – Potential for business and market losses
- 11. 11-11 Business Models and Planning • Vital questions – Who are our customers? – What do our customers value? – How much will it cost to deliver that value? – How do we make money in this business?
- 12. 11-12 Questions for Business Models
- 13. 11-13 The Business/IT Planning Process
- 14. 11-14 Information Technology Architecture • Conceptual design components – Technology platform – Data resources – Application architecture – IT organization
- 15. 11-15 Balanced Scorecard • Measures activities in terms of vision and strategies – Financial performance – Impact on customers – Performance of key business processes – Company’s learning curve and growth • Four processes – Translate vision into operational goals – Communicate vision and link to performance – Business planning – Feedback/learning and strategy adjustment
- 17. 11-17 Identifying Business/IT Strategies • Valuable Internet applications – Transcend communication barriers – Establish connections that enhance productivity – Stimulate innovative development – Improve customer relations
- 19. 11-19 Strategic Matrix • Cost and Efficiency Improvements – Low internal and low external connectivity – Recommend – Use the Internet as a fast, low-cost way to communicate and interact with others • Performance Improvement in Effectiveness – High internal but low external connectivity – Recommend – Increase use intranets and extranets
- 20. 11-20 Strategic Strategies • Global Market Penetration – High external but low internal connectivity – Capitalize with e-commerce websites using value-added information services and extensive online customer support • Product and Service Transformation – High external and high internal connectivity – Develop and deploy new Internet-based products and services to create a new strategic position in the marketplace
- 21. 11-21 E-Business Strategy Examples • Market Creator • Channel Reconfiguration • Transaction Intermediary • Infomediary: • Self-Service Innovator • Supply Chain Innovator • Channel Mastery
- 22. 11-22 Business Application Planning Process
- 25. 11-25 Implementation Challenges • Implementation – Do what you planned to do – Critical skill for managers • Many companies are good at planning • Few are good at executing the plan – Even if senior management consistently identifies e-business as an area of great opportunity and critical need
- 26. 11-26 RWC 2: Project Success • People skills critical to project success – Teamwork – Support during tough times • Bad relationships leading cause of failure • Managers tend to go to software instead of building relations • Showing progress at short intervals helps
- 27. 11-27 Implementing Information Technology • Developments that have generated organizational change – Business process reengineering – ERP systems – Y2K compliance – Shared service centers – Just-in-time manufacturing – Sales force automation – Contract manufacturing – Introduction of Euro currency • E-business is the latest catalyst
- 28. 11-28 Impact and Scope of Implementing IT
- 29. 11-29 Impact and Scope of Implementing IT
- 30. 11-30 End User Resistance and Involvement • Change generates resistance • Examples: – Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Knowledge Management Systems (KM) • CRM failures – CRM failure rate up to 75 percent – Causes for failure • Sales force automation problems • Unaddressed cultural issues • Sales staffs fearful and thus resistant
- 31. 11-31 Obstacles to KM Systems
- 32. 11-32 Keys to Solving End User Resistance • Create relationships – Understand the end-user’s situation • Provide education and training • Require involvement and commitment – End-users – Top management – All stakeholders • Eliminate frustration and inconvenience
- 33. 11-33 Key Dimensions of Change Management
- 34. 11-34 Change Management Programs • Develop a change action plan • Assign managers as change sponsors • Develop employee change teams • Encourage open communications and feedback about organizational changes
- 35. 11-35 Change Management Tactics • Involve as many people as possible in e- business planning and application development • Make constant change an expected part of the culture • Tell everyone as much as possible about everything, as often as possible, in person • Make liberal use of financial incentives and recognition • Work within company culture, not around it
- 36. 11-36 A Change Management Process
- 38. 11-38 RWC 3: Crucial Strategic Planning Elements • Alignment between business and IT – IT strategic plan to improve the business-IT relationship – Articulate how IT fits into business and overall business strategy. • Apply clear strategy to business activities
- 39. 11-39 RWC 4: The Science behind Change • Implementing changes is very challenging • Employees resist change • Understanding can lead to smoother transitions • Not everyone is motivated by ambition • Education and training aid with acceptance
Editor's Notes
- #4: Information technology has created a seismic shift in the way companies do business Just knowing the importance and structure of e-business is not enough You must create and implement an action plan that allows you to make the transition from an old business design to a new e-business design
- #6: Strategic Planning Deals with the development of an organization’s mission, goals, strategies, and policies Begins with strategic visioning questions Tactical Planning The setting of objectives and the development of procedures, rules, schedules, and budgets Operational Planning Done on a short-term basis to implement and control day-to-day operations
- #7: Gaining in popularity as a less formal, but more realistic, strategic planning methodology Teams of managers and planners participate in microworld or virtual world exercises Business scenarios are created and evaluated Alternative scenarios are then created
- #9: Planning for Competitive Advantage Strategic business/IT planning Involves evaluating the potential benefits and risks of using IT-based strategies and technologies for competitive advantage The following models can help generate ideas for the strategic use of IT to support initiatives Competitive forces Competitive strategies Value chain
- #11: SWOT stands for Strengths: a company’s core competencies and resources Weaknesses: areas of substandard business performance compared to others Opportunities: potential for new business markets or innovative breakthroughs that might expand current markets Threats: anything that has the potential for business and market losses
- #12: Business model answers vital questions about the fundamental components of a business
- #13: Business model answers vital questions about the fundamental components of a business
- #14: Business Models as Planning Tools A business model forces rigorously and systematic thinking about the value and viability of business initiatives The strategic planning process is then used to develop unique business strategies that capitalize on a business model The goal is to gain a competitive advantage in an industry or marketplace The business/IT planning process has three major components Strategic development Resource management Technology architecture
- #15: The IT architecture is a conceptual design that includes these major components Technology platform Data resources Application architecture IT organization
- #16: The balanced scorecard measures a company’s activities in terms of vision and strategies The business perspectives a scorecard measures Financial: reflects financial performance, such as cash flow or ROI Customer: measures having a direct impact on customers, such as time to process phone calls Business process: reflects the performance of key business processes, such as time spent prospecting or process costs Learning/growth: the company’s learning curve, such as how many hours are spent training staff The system has four processes Translating vision into operational goals Communicating the vision and linking it to individual performance Business planning Feedback/learning and strategy adjustment
- #20: Strategic Matrix Cost and Efficiency Improvements Use the Internet as a fast, low-cost way to communicate and interact with others Use of e-mail, chat systems, discussion groups, and company websites Performance Improvement in Effectiveness Major improvements in business effectiveness recommended Increase use of Internet-based technologies, such as intranets and extranets
- #21: Strategic Strategies Global Market Penetration Capitalize on a high degree of customer and competitor connectivity and use of IT Use e-commerce websites with value-added information services and extensive online customer support Product and Service Transformation Develop and deploy new Internet-based products and services that strategically reposition it in the marketplace
- #22: Market Creator Be among the first to market and remain ahead of the competition by continuously innovating Channel Reconfiguration Use the Internet to directly access customers, make sales, and fulfill orders Transaction Intermediary Use the Internet to process purchases Infomediary: Use the Internet to reduce the search cost Offer a unified process for collecting the information needed to make a large purchase Self-Service Innovator Provide a comprehensive suite of services that the customer’s employees can use directly Supply Chain Innovator Use the Internet to streamline supply chain interactions Channel Mastery Use the Internet as a sales and service channel
- #26: Implementation Do what you planned to do Critical skill for managers Many companies plan changes very well Few manage to convert a plan into action This is true even if senior management consistently identifies e-business as an area of great opportunity
- #28: Many businesses have undergone multiple major reorganization since the early 1980s Business process reengineering Installation and upgrades of an ERP system Upgrading legacy systems to be Y2K compliant Creating shared service centers Just-in-time manufacturing Sales force automation Contract manufacturing The introduction of euro currency E-business is the latest organizational change
- #30: Intranet Enterprise Portal Challenges Security, security, security Defining the scope and purpose of the portal Finding the time and the money Ensuring consistent data quality Getting employees to use it Organizing the data Finding technical expertise Integrating the pieces Making it easy to use Providing all users with access Enterprise Resource Planning Challenges Getting end user buy-in Scheduling/planning Integrating legacy systems/data Getting management buy-in Multiple/international sites and partners Changing culture and mind-sets IT training Getting, keeping IT staff Moving to a new platform Performance/system upgrades
- #31: Any new way of doing things generates some resistance from the people affected CRM projects have a history of failure Up to 75 percent of CRM projects fail to meet their objectives This is often due to sales force automation problems and unaddressed cultural issues Sales staffs are often resistant to, or fearful of, using CRM systems
- #33: Understanding the end-user’s situation Education and training End-user involvement in organizational changes and system development Requiring involvement and commitment of top management and all stakeholders Systems that inconvenience or frustrate users cannot be effective, no matter how technically elegant or efficient
- #34: People factors have the highest level of difficulty and longest time to resolve of any dimension of change management. Thus, people are a major focus of organizational change management. This includes activities such as developing innovative ways to measure, motivate, and reward performance. It is important to design programs to recruit and train employees in the core competencies required in a changing workplace.
- #37: A process of change management. Examples of the activities involved in successfully managing organizational change caused by the implementation of new business processes. This eight-level change management model is only one of many that could be applied to manage organizational changes caused by new business/IT strategies and applications and other changes in business processes. This model suggests that the business vision created in the strategic planning phase should be communicated in a compelling change story to the people in the organization. Evaluating the readiness for changes within an organization and then developing change strategies and choosing and training change leaders and champions based on that assessment could be the next steps in the process.
- #38: Avnet Marshall moved through several stages of organizational transformation as it implemented various e-business and e-commerce applications, driven by the customer value focus of its Free.Perfect.Now business model.
- #39: The alignment between business and IT strategy is crucial to business success; sometimes it is IT that makes it happen. For most CIOs, putting together an IT strategic plan which helps to improve the business-IT relationship is very important. Businesses may not have a clear strategy or they may have some strategies, but they may not apply to all the business activities taking place. IT can help the business articulate how IT fits into business and influence overall business strategy.
- #40: Implementing changes needed by new information systems in an organization is very challenging as employees resist change . Understanding the science behind change and resistance to change can lead to more effective approaches to foster involvement and smooth out transitions to new systems. One of the biggest mistakes managers make is assuming that everyone is motivated by ambition. Many people are motivated as much or more by the work they do as they are by the opportunity to move up in the hierarchy. One way to manage change is through education and training. Employees accept change if they are provided proper education and training on the new system that is being implemented.