Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

The Value Inside

The true test of our stewardship is not just how well software is used but whether we're getting the full value that we should. That's not just a technology leadership test; it's a business leadership challenge
Page:

CIOs should be treating success with an application as an invitation to see what else the software can do for their business.

Success can be a trickster; be wary. While I was moderating a customer advisory board workshop for the software division of a giant technology company, a disturbing observation dawned on everyone in our poorly air-conditioned conference room: The software we were all there to improve could do much more than even its most loyal users dreamed of, yet that extra capability was almost never tapped.

The division's leadership heard story after story of how their software did a terrific job of solving one problem, yet was never considered as a possible solution for any other business problem. Somehow, the software's early success had branded it a useful "point solution" rather than an innovative platform for an array of apps. For example, while the software was superb for both mass and custom distribution of e-mails and PDFs, it could also handle global distribution of richer media formats - streaming, for instance. But clients were not even aware of the greater capability. In fact, this server software, with minor modifications, was explicitly designed to deal with the bulk of the business and technical issues its users had deemed critical.

Why did early success blunt enhanced adoption? Communication was part of the problem. People just didn't see the links between digital formats, and the vendor didn't know enough about its customers' specific business needs to point out how the software could address them. While it was true the software would have to be tweaked to custom-support specific needs, the vendor actually had tools that made customization cheap and easy. But again, the customers didn't understand what was available.

Bottom line? The software was a victim of its early success. The customers clearly liked it - why else join the advisory board? - but the package was woefully undervalued and underutilized. The point solution perception actually undermined its potential as an enterprise business process platform. Oh, the irony! The software had been unfairly "niched".

At a major software company's CIO conference barely a month later, it was deja vu all over again. Fortune 1000 IT leaders took turns telling their host's senior management that the vendor's enterprise software was underutilized. Business process owners and line executives inside their companies kept looking for alternate software solutions to business needs when the vendor's existing software could accomplish most everything required - and more.

"You need to make it easier for us to utilize all the software we license from you," one CIO told the vendor hosting the conference. "Otherwise, our people are just going to go out and buy the software they think they need from someone else."

Indeed, the common theme of these vignettes turns out to be a problem throughout enterprise computing. Organizations in general — and IT in particular — are underachievers in extracting full value from the systems they acquire and deploy. They're too satisfied with initial success. For confirmation, you have to look only as far as your own desktop. The overwhelming majority of people use a fraction of the power and potential of, say, Microsoft Office or Google. Survey after survey reveals that managers typically use less than 15 percent of the functionality of PowerPoint or Excel. A recent IT survey by a Fortune 50 company showed that not even 10 percent of the employees over the age of 35 used the corporate e-mail filtering function.

Page:

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Evolve, Global Distribution, Google, Microsoft, MIT, MIT Media Lab, VIA

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • A Data Center Fabric Is Critical to a Next-Generation Unified Data Center
    The data center has gone through several major evolutionary changes over the past several decades, and each change has been defined by major shifts in computing. The shift to a virtual data center will be the single biggest transition in the history of computing. This transition will reshape all the major data center tiers: applications, storage, servers and the network. This paper examines the drivers of this transition, provides real-world case studies and includes data centre fabric best practices.
    Learn more »
  • SOA and Business Processes: Making the Connection
    Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is also complex, and one of its main characteristics is that an SOA system is comprised of multiple applications that are combined to accomplish critical business processes. Discussions of SOA can quickly grow so complex that the system’s main benefits to an organization are difficult to fully understand. This article discusses SOA Suite 11g, a family of products that take SOA to a new level and correct some of the problems caused by the very combination of components and multiplication of languages that make SOA a flexible, agile system.
    Learn more »
  • Webcast: Innovation Driving UC Everywhere: From Mobile to the Cloud and Beyond
    Polycom announced it is acquiring HP's Visual Collaboration Business Unit, including HP's Halo products and Managed Services, and the two companies have entered into a deep strategic agreement through which Polycom will become HP's exclusive partner for telepresence and video UC solutions. This will create an end-to-end UC solution that will deliver to our joint customers an unparalleled user experience, interoperability, investment protection, and ease of deployment. Watch this webcast.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments