Six IT Decisions Your IT

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• Six IT Decisions Your IT
• People Shouldnt Make
• Team KBS
• Dwight Abouhalkah
• Kathy Copeland
• Aaron Lian
• Tim Stout
• Pete Wilhelm

April 22, 2006
Adapted from the article written by Jeanne W.
Ross and Peter Weill, HBR, November 2002
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Senior Managements Six IT Responsibilities

• Strategic
• How much should we spend on IT?
• Which business processes should receive our IT
  dollars?
• Which capabilities need to be company-wide?
• Execution
• How good do our IT services need to be?
• What security and privacy risks will we accept?
• Whom do we blame if an IT initiative fails?

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What is the business value of IT?

• Many executives dont know.
• Inherent disconnect between executives and IT.
• I cant manage what I dont understand.
• In successful firms executives assure that
  business strategy drives the level of IT required.

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1How Much Should We Spend on IT?

• How much is enough? Does benchmarking help? The
  3 rule.
• Define the business strategy.
• Define the strategic role IT will play in the
  organization.
• Spend the resources required to fulfill the
  objective.
• Red Cross NBCS Delivering on individual
  projectsbut with no strategic platform.

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2Which Business Processes Should Receive our IT
Dollars?

• Prioritize initiatives and projects
• Consider the strategic significance
• Implement simultaneously
• Sequence projects
• Hershey Foods
• Delta Airlines
• Tosoh Quartz ERP System

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3Which IT Capabilities Need to be Company-Wide?

• What should be centralized and standardized?
• Company culture
• Specific needs
• Cost control
• Business unit autonomy
• Trade-offs
• OHSU Electronic Medical Records (EMR)

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4How Good do our IT Services Really Need to be?

• Cadillac or Buick?
• Do we really need gold-plated functionality?
• Unused features
• Total cost of ownership
• Initial cost
• Annual operating cost
• Lost revenue
• OHSU - EMR

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5What Security and Privacy Risks will We Accept?

• What level of protection or openness do you want?
• What are you willing to spend?
• Will it limit functionality or convenience?
• Hassle factor!
• Yale Privacy Example
• ESCO Security Examples

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6Whom do We Blame if an IT Initiative Fails?

• Finger pointing
• Wheres the real problem?
• IT group
• The non-IT executives management of IT-enabled
  change
• Sponsorship
• Ownership of outcomes

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Summary

• Senior executives cant abdicate responsibility
  for these six IT decisions
• Collaborate Involve the right people
• BOISE (PeopleSoft MAXIMO)
• The executive suite

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• Questions ???
• Comments ..
• Arguments _at_
• Conclusions !!!