Challenges for IT: Doing More

Many IT departments I’ve spoken with lately are challenged by having too much on their plate. They need to support current applications, make modifications, keep the servers running, etc. All the while, they are being asked to develop new apps that can advance corporate goals. For an IT department that has been barely keeping on top of everything (and likely can’t hire anyone right now), this can be a real problem. How to make room for more than just keeping the lights on?

The first step to solving it, is to get a clearer look at it.

On the one side, there are different people making requests: management, department heads, and existing users. This is IT’s client.

On the other side, there is the IT department: the implementers.

Usually, communication between the two is some form of adding more and more onto a task list. Getting things done is a matter of addressing the squeakiest (and easiest) wheel first. In this kind of environment, there is no visibility. It’s just a series of requests; push back, delivery and more requests.

Nobody really knows the overall picture on what is currently on everyone’s plate, how far along they are and whether there is room for more. Without that visibility, there is no room for change or improvement other than saying “we need more people” or “leave me alone, I’m already too busy.”

You can improving the situation by implementing structured communications. Create fixed categories for the communication to go through. Instead of simply putting information into a document or a spreadsheet, create a basic plan that answers 5 key questions.

The critical categories/questions to start with are:
1 What will be done – a description of the project and/or its goal
2 How is it going to get done -a description of the tasks
3 When will it be done – a start and end date
4 How much time (in terms of effort) will it take to do
5 Who is going to do it.

By creating fixed categories, the communications becomes useful as a source of information. It is not left as a series of unstructured to dos. It is a plan that is full of data. It becomes a tool for having a higher degree of visibility on projects, resources and the way things get done in the department.

You can now see what a client’s request is all about. You will have defined categories whose values you can measure and track over time. (You will also have a common point of reference between you and your client, which can help improve your communication.)

Another benefit is that the standardized categories can then be searched and cross-referenced for overall department or company reports. This provides real-world business intelligence that can lead to better strategic planning and, in the case above, with a way to see how to do more with existing resources.

Here are a few questions that should give you a reality check –

• How much visibility do you have into your department’s daily tasks?
• Do you know how much time your team is spending on new projects vs. keeping the lights on?

Your turn:

• Have you tried implementing a system to manage your team’s tasks before?
• What challenges have you seen in implementing a way to track and see tasks?

Mark Phillips

CEO, Vertabase

Customer Satisfaction – The Ultimate Key Performance Metric

Technology organizations are notorious for meticulously tracking rather detailed performance metrics: number of system transactions processed per second; percentage of application uptime; and bandwidth utilization, among other things. While these can be valuable for discretely managing system components, they rarely have significant meaning to external customer audiences. Sometimes, they can even distract the conversation from things that really matter to people we serve. Customers only care about their experiences – end-to-end system performance and the ease and richness of application interaction. I put forth the notion that customer satisfaction is really the ultimate key performance metric. This may sound a bit odd for a technology leader, but throughout my career, I have found that this “soft”, non-technical data will be the definitive measure of you and your organization’s success. Accordingly, at first, spend less time gathering all that minutia about systems, and initially seek more qualitative feedback from your customers. Eventually, you may need that detailed system data, but use that data primarily to dig deeper into customer satisfaction problems if/when those customer problems are discovered.

_________________________________
Joseph Sawasky
Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice President
Computing and Information Technology
Wayne State University

Exciting happenings in Michigan

Does that statement seem a little out of touch with what’s really going on in our economy right now? Let me put it another way, Michigan is a front-runner in many technological advances. Okay, still a little off popular messaging? Not really!
Check out these statistics:

• Southeast Michigan’s tech industry employs over 300,000 workers representing 14.7%
• of all employment in the region.

• The total payroll in the technology industry reached $21.9 billion in 2006.

• Someone in the tech field earns one in every four salary dollars in Southeast Michigan.
• The average income for a tech employee in 2006 was $70.311.

• 68% of all US patents were granted to private sector businesses in SE Michigan (10,579 patents). These patents ranged from a method for treating multiple types of cancer using chemical derivatives to sensors that can detect leaks in hydrogen fuel cells.

• Homeland security is making a move to Michigan as well. In 2008, expansion of the University of Michigan’s robotics programs follows a move in 2005 by the Army to locate its robotics development program from Alabama to the militaries Detroit Arsenal in Warren.

*These statistics were taken from the 2008 Automation Alley Tech report.

Here at MTL we have been working with some of the most amazing companies, doing exceptional things that are making a difference not only for our economy but also for the perception of what Michigan is and can be.

We’re highlighting 10 of these companies this year at the MTL Symposium in a little thing we like to call the Techno Expo.

It is our responsibility – all of us – to promote Michigan, promote all the exciting growth that is happening, join together and say – Michigan can redefine itself, it already is!

What are you doing to spread the excitement?

What really happens in BIG companies and the plan for the future CIO?

When I arrived at Kmart back in 1990, they were doing 30 plus billion dollars.  I had just left CVS as the Corporate VP of Pharmacy and was very involved in not just the pharmacy operations, but also the process. The “system” we used helped fill prescriptions and more importantly, helped us make money.

Let me explain.

Kmart had developed the new pharmacy system internally. What I found was that four million dollars had been invested in a system that could never work in the real world. Why? It all came down to silos —the business vision, the technical know how and the user. Those groups were not working together – not communicating and the end result was a system that could not work in the real world and one that certainly could not make money.
My goal was to connect the users with the IT team, get the right mix of people, look at where the future was in the pharmacy business then decide how to build or buy the right tools.  Thanks to the support of Dave Carlson, the head of IT — an executive who welcomed feedback such as “here is our business and here is where it is going, what can we do together?”
In less then 60 days, we had a team, we had weekly meetings, we interviewed vendors and we made a team decision.
The roll out required that we change 1,600 stores in 4 months to all new hardware, all new software and all new training! WE DID IT!

How:

1. Communication
2. Defining the business vision and having IT as a partner creating that    vision not just an implementing it after the fact
3. Getting a mix of people to brainstorm and work the process to get the best solution for this project
4. Communicating with the users at store level via a satellite feed weekly as we rolled it out allowing the team to manage the process and troubleshoot in real time

Results:

• Kmart went from a pharmacy business that did $750,000 million a year to $1.6 billion in less then two years (thanks to this effort)
• Previously, Kmart could only take three insurance plans, after this initiative, they could take every insurance plan
• To date, after 18 years, this process is still the underbelly of the pharmacy at Kmart. The team executed the vision.

So today, look at the future, what are the emerging tools not just in IT but also for the business that IT is supporting and partners with?  How will you, the CIO, take these new tools and help your team build for that future!

F. Kevin Browett

Mr. Browett brings over 25 years of direct hands-on experience in the retail healthcare business and senior executive management experience in personnel development, operations, marketing, merchandising and bottom line financial management.