Measure Twice, Cut Once
The lessons learned in woodshop and other crafts-making courses in grade school are crucial to keep in mind in the electronic age – Measure twice, cut once. Make sure that you have accurate and precise measurements before making business decisions. Realistically, this first means that your team must collect and record measurements. This seems like a no-brainer activity (it’s never a wise decision to make decisions without information, purely in a vacuum), but it astounds me that so many companies continue business-as-usual without business intelligence systems in place to collect and analyze organizational data.
While some believe dashboards are only a “trend,” dashboards which visually represent business data can be powerful tools to align metrics with the strategic goals of the company. Frequently analyzing data in context of these strategic goals ensure that the company is performing activities that always move towards the company’s core value proposition.
One basic, yet powerful, dashboard tool for those maintaining personal or corporate websites, is Google Analytics. Search Engine Watch has a great write up about using dashboards for better insights. But from SAP, to Amazon and Google, many organizations specialize in selling their proprietary dashboard tools to businesses who need organized data on their internal systems and processes – true BI systems. Dashboards can be set up for anything from marketing to technology departments – any department can (and should!) use forecasting and predictive measures to inform their decision-making. Successful organizations are shifting from decisions driven by beliefs, ideology and past experiences, to evidence based management (Pfeffer, & Sutton, 2006).
To other business analysts out there, what tools do you use to measure twice, cut once?
Shift in Corporate IT Roles
What is your job title going to look like 3 years from now?
A recent CIO Executive Board report named five radical shifts in the organization and management of corporate IT’s traditional function. Not surprisingly (as many large organizations deal with some sort of talent management issues), the majority of IT organizations are ill-equipped to handle the resulting changes in their talent needs. Three of the five shifts driving radical change in IT talent needs exhibit opportunities for current job seekers, or soon-to-be job seekers (I’m talking to you, 2nd year MIS and MBAs!):
1. Business Process First –> Information Over Process
Where business process design now drives competitive advantage but also absorbs the lion’s share of IT investment, the future of corporate IT will shift competitive advantage toward customer experience, data analytics, and knowledge worker enablement. As a result, IT management skills will rise in importance relative to business process design.
2. Pressure for Central –> Greater Business Partner Responsibility
Governance currently guides business units and end users away from forming their own IT capabilities, but be on the lookout for business unit leaders and end users playing a greater role in obtaining and managing technology for themselves. Differentiation will have more value than standardization.
3. Fully Functional IT –> Diminished Standalone IT Role
Today the scope of central corporate IT encompasses strategy, governance, and delivery with direct control of almost all IT-related resources and activities. However, IT roles will shift to be embedded in business services, evolve into business roles, or completely be externalized. Current IT roles will be housed in a business shared services group, whereas the CIO position will expand to lead this group or shrink to manage IT procurement and integration.
These shifts will have significant changes in the way traditional corporate IT centers are run and staffed. (And a heads-up to current DBAs, SysAdmins, and Service Desk reps…Look where your jobs are going…)
So, if you’re still in school or looking for a job, consider the shifts happening in corporate IT. Process and business skills sets are becoming more critical in global companies, and communication and financial skills may be currently underemphasized (and thus a key opportunity area). Be prepared to hear more about growing buzzwords like security, process, cloud, social, and sharing in the work place.
Want to be more competitive in the marketplace? Be aware of the trends and shifts occurring in the industry, and equip yourself with the tools, knowledge, and experience critical to evolve along with the trends.
Jessica Samph
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