2. Agenda
Technology
Strategy
✖ What is it?
✖ Why do it?
✖ How?
A nine point
plan for aligning
IT with business
strategy.
ERP
✖ What is it?
✖ Why do it?
✖ When to do it?
✖ How?
4. The traditional role reserved for IT has been
fairly subservient in business planning. IT has
been merely an implementation tool, not
intrinsically involved in shaping strategy.
5. And Yet…..
An investment in IT will enable your business to:
✖ Reduce costs;
✖ Standardise processes;
✖ Enhance productivity;
✖ Improve workflow & communications;
✖ Sustain repeatable service levels;
✖ Improve risk control mechanisms;
✖ Implement new business strategies;
✖ Facilitate organic and acquisition-driven growth;
✖ Gain competitive advantage by exploiting new technology.
IT Strategy is bolted onto the business, more or less
as an afterthought, rather than form the corporate
skeleton and central nervous system of the
organization.
9. 3.Know the IT Real Estate
Identify & Document all
Applications
Commodity ERP
IT Assets
Human Hard
Delivery
10. Discover the Value Chain
Identify & document the
relationships/touch points
between the business and IT
estate.
Discover what is really driving
business/IT activity & identify the
key scaling factors that are
absolutely crucial to effective
strategic planning and
alignment.
11. Interpret the Context
➔ Corporate
plans
➔ Business unit
plans
➔ Infrastructure
Renewal &
Refresh
Internal Influences
➔ Legislation
➔ Industry
Regulation
➔ Economic,
Customer, &
Supplier
trends
➔ Avaliability of
Skills
External Influences
Gather & collate intelligence
about influential factors
12. Determine the Change Agenda
The impact of
change
Setting the
Agenda
x..?..z
Analyze the context, the business strategy and
influential factors, identify impacts and implications
for the IT estate.
14. Populate the Delivery
Framework
Capacity Planning
Every IT department has a
fundamental capacity for work,
based on factors such as:
Manpower;
Skills Profile;
Processing Power;
Storage;
Bandwidth;
Software Licenses
Commitment
Armed with a realistics
awareness of the actual
capacity for work, the IT
department will be in a
stronger position undertake
further commitments, in
support of the business
strategy.
Approach
The benefits of such a formal
approach to capacity planning
are manifold, if vigorously
maintained.
15. Given that we know the following:
✖ How our business works
✖ Our strategic goals
✖ The resources available to us
✖ The operating context
✖ The technology road map
✖ The business unit work plans
✖ Our commitment to customers
Achieve the Business Benefits
Our principal tasks now are:
✖ To manage the delivery framework
✖ To manage the relationships with our
customers and providers
✖ Measure the success
16. This nine step plan is a continuous and
iterative process- “an ongoing way of life.”
18. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business process
management software that allows an organization to use
a system of integrated applications to manage the
business and automate many back office functions
related to technology, services and human resources.
19. ✖ Full System
repurchase
✖ Time Commitment
✖ Expensive
Why or Why not?
✖ Scalability
✖ Improved reporting
✖ Data quality
✖ Lower cost of operations
✖ Better CRM
✖ Business analytics
✖ Improved data access
✖ Better supply chain
✖ Regulatory compliance
✖ Reduced complexity
20. Are you beginning to see warning signs of software failure within your organization?
Does it feel like the complaints from your system users are growing?
✖ Users complain about system performance
✖ More in-house databases and excel spread sheets are being used for business
processes versus analysis
✖ Inventories are getting too high/too low
✖ Competitors appear to have an advantage regarding service provided
✖ Engineering data problems
✖ ISO processes & NCR’s
✖ Shop Floor data control is lacking
✖ Purchasing costs are too high
✖ Customer service complaints
✖ Data access is just not sufficient
✖ Current IT supplier doesn’t understand your business
Some indicators that it maybe
time for ERP
22. Principles
Kevin is business and sales lead for Pund-IT. Kevin is
a former Fortune 500 CIO, Director of Managed
Services and Director of Education of the SSG/Global
(now Infor) User Group in the USA. In addition to his
day job, Kevin is a world traveller, lover of SCUBA,
and avid sailor.
His work experience includes
designing, sourcing and implementing full
EDI/ERP/HR IT strategy and systems for a 30-
location North American manufacturing firm;
creating a new IT Services division and taking it into-
the-black within 18 months; and supporting not-for-
profit, financial, healthcare, manufacturing and
digital media organizations. Kevin is also a founding
member of EO - Entrepreneurs' Organization SWO
Chapter and actively involved in various community-
based organizations.
Cedric Puddy is technical lead for Pund-IT. Cedric is
an entrepreneur with breadth (and depth) of
technical experience and know-how combined with
a love of all things techie. He brings extensive
experience in designing and supporting systems for
companies of all sizes and in a wide variety of
industries: from semiconductors to restaurants.
Cedric is responsible for ensuring the quality of
Pund-ITs services, and overseeing the technology
ecosystem that Pund-IT supports.
Cedric has the invaluable ability to
translate a client’s goal into actionable technology
strategy. He excels at articulating concepts and
educating clients, so they can make empowered and
informed business decisions
Kevin Puloski
CEO
Cedric Puddy
CTO
Overall plan which consists of objectives, principles, and tactics relating to use of technologies.
“What is IT to you? Op-Ex or Cap-Ex? It is a cost or investment”
Most companies are completely technology centric and focused purely on technology products.
Should become a key business function for almost every org for various reasons as listed.
We have to move on from the old world thinking of retro-fitting business functionality into an IT strategy, towards a business focused approach where we address the following questions.
-What do we need for the future?
-What have we got now?
-How do we change things to make our visions reality?
-How do we make sure that our IT remains relevant to an evolving business?
Despit the growing trends towards service homogenisation and widespread adoption of packaged software, there are still real opportunities for IT to make a difference. The principal benefit will be derived from having robust & adaptable technology throughout the organization, thus facilitating an agile business strategy.
the first of the 9 step process to align business strategy with technology.
the IT function is about capturing, processing, storing, and distributing information or data
Need a crystal clear understanding of the business itself- without such a view, it is impossible to successfully achieve the desired outcome.
Start to consider the multi-tier nature of your organization and how it fits into the rest of the business world
-Economy (Canadian dollar,
-Sector (What competitors are doing)
-Corporate
-Business unit
-department
-team
-individual
-Clients (Pressures from them)
Next: Map out exactly what organization does and how you do it. Document, document, document!
-Organization Charts
-Roles and Responsibility
-Formal Processes
-Informal Processes
-Markets
Talk to all key stakeholders
We must understand where we stand now before we can begin planning seriously for the future.
Most frequently overlooked aspect of IT!
The culture of the business always has a very strong bearing on the successful application of technology.
Must match the nature of systems to the nature of our business as culture exists. If we do not make this connection properly, we will always struggle to achieve optimum performance from our IT investments.
Comments about Generation gap and learning curve on technology (Pund-IT employee age gap)
Resistance: What it means to have resistance?
Look at how we our kids will use technology in 10 yrs
EX. MTD Data Collection System
Formally document the various components within the IT estate and understand precisely how they are aggregated into our service offerings.
IT Assets:
-Exactly how many assets we have (Manpower and hardware)
-Get most out of your buck, can always upgrade then buy new
-Continuing education
Manpower
Skills
Delivery= Timeline. How they are distributed. Who uses tem. Who owns the,. Who supports them. Manages them. Security, etc etc
Applications:
Word Suite: Upgrades
Mentor Works: How do you pay for them
Every business consists of various value chains, each of which aggregates a number of inputs, transforms them to add value, and then produce an output.
Important to understanding this because they generally represent the relationships and touch points between the business functions and It estate.
Each link may depend on the execution of several software and physical transactions as the customer order is processed.
By analysing this, we discover what really is driving our business and are absolutely crucial to effective strategic planning and alignment.
Know what pressures will shape and influence our business, perhaps most imposing change upon us when we least welcome it.
Analyse the raw information and determine how any consequent change may affect our business functions, culture, it estate and value chains.
All internal should be under direct control of the business and easiest to resolve.
External are more diverse and difficult… Each of these categories represents a broad range of interests and influences, every one of which will impact our
Thinking on a continuous basis, from both a business and technology perspective.
Be aware of relevant changes that will affect us, especially changes in legislation and regulation.
Story:
You should know all the effects of change before setting the agenda.
Pavestone Company story
CIO- Team viewer and Web X
Benfits of this formal approach are that resource forecasting is improved and fewer customers are disappointed.
You have to buy the “whole system” which means paying for functionality you might not implement today.
ERP systems do appear expensive, especially the initial costs. But if you take into consideration how much you have spent over the years with:
“band-aid” add-on solution
the islands of information you have evolved into that may require more labor to maintain than a fully integrated system
realizing what you have doesn’t provide the information you need
With improved inventory control, costing, quality, the cost of ERP might be justified. Besides an ERP system could be necessary to maintain your current business health.
Phase 1: Scope document
will first seek to understand the business needs, scale and goals required by an ERP system. After completing this assessment and verifying its correctness withcomapny, Pund-IT will review current systems (hardware and software) for relevance, adaptability and/or removal vis-à-vis the business’ current and future needs.
Phase 2: RFP requirements and document
which will be sent out to vendors and specify the specifics of work, materials, equipment, etc. required to fulfil LLMT’s needs.
Phase 3: Discussion:
Evaluation of responses, attendance at Respondent presentations, post- presentation discussion, as required, in providing consultative services in the selection of an appropriate vendor.
