credit crunch

The scope of IT’s responsibility when businesses go bad

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business analytics, business intelligence, change management, cultural transformation, it business alignment, technology , , , , , , , , ,
linkedin Chief Information Officer (CIO) Network

This article is another relating to a discussion on LinkedIn.com. As with my earlier piece, Short-term “Trouble for Big Business Intelligence Vendors” may lead to longer-term advantage, this was posted on the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Network group

The thread was initiated by Patrick Gray and was entitled: Is IT partially to blame for the financial crisis? (as ever you need to be a member of LinkedIn.com and the group to view this).

Business Failure

Patrick asked:

Information is one of the key components of any IT organization (I would personally argue it’s more important than the technology aspect). Two facts disturb me when one looks at IT’s role in the financial crisis:

1) We in IT have been pushing data warehouse and business intelligence technology for years, saying these technologies should allow for “proactive” decision making at all levels of an organization, and an ability to spot trends and changes in a business’ underlying financial health.

2) The finance industry is usually spends more on IT than any other industry.

This being the case, if BI actually does what we’ve pitched it to do, shouldn’t one of these fancy analytical tools spotted the underlying roots of the financial crisis in at least one major bank? Is IT partially culpable for either not looking at the right data, or selling a bill of goods in terms of the “intelligence” aspect of BI?

I have written elsewhere on LinkedIn.com about business intelligence’s role in the financial crisis. My general take is that if the people who were committing organisations to collateralised debt obligations and other even more esoteric assent-backed securities were unable (or unwilling) to understand precisely the nature of the exposure that they were taking on, then how could this be reflected in BI systems. Good BI systems reflect business realities and risk is one of those realities. However if risk is as ill-understood as it appears to have been in many financial organisations, then it is difficult to see how BI (or indeed it’s sister area of business analytics) could have shed light where the layers of cobwebs were so dense.

So far, so orthodox, but Patrick’s question got me thinking along a different line, one that is more closely related to the ideas that I propounded in Business is from Mars and IT is from Venus last year. I started wondering, ‘is it just too easy for IT to say, “the business people did not understand the risks, so how were we expected to?”?’ (I think I have that punctuation right, but would welcome corrections from any experts reading this). This rather amorphous feeling was given some substance when I read some of the other responses.

However, I don’t want to focus too much on any one comment. My approach will be instead to take a more personal angle and describe some of the thoughts that the comments provoked in me (I am using “provoked” here in a positive sense, maybe “inspired” would have been a better choice of word). If you want to read my comments with the full context, then please click on the link above. What I am going to do here is to present some excerpts from each of my two lengthier contributions. The first of these is as follows (please note that I have also corrected a couple of typos and grammatical infelicities):

Rather than being defensive, and as a BI professional I would probably have every right to be so, I think that Patrick has at least half a point. If some organisations had avoided problems (or mitigated their impact) through the use of good BI (note the adjective) in the current climate, then BI people (me included) would rush to say how much we had contributed. I have certainly done this when the BI systems that I have implemented helped an organisation to swing from record losses to record profits.

Well if we are happy to do this, then we have to take some responsibility when things don’t go so well. It worries me when IT people say that non-IT managers are accountable for the business and IT is just accountable for IT. Surely in a well-functioning organisation, IT is one department that shares responsibility for business success with all the other front-line and service departments.

I have seen it argued with respect to failed financial institutions that IT can only provide information and that other executives take decisions. Well if this is the case, then I question how well the information has been designed to meet business needs and to drive decisions. To me this is evidence of bad BI (note the adjective again).

There are some specific mitigating factors for IT within the current climate, including poor internal (non-IT) governance and the fact that even the people who were writing some financial instruments did not understand the potential liabilities that the we taking on. If this is the case, then how can such risk be rolled up meaningfully? However these factors do not fully exculpate IT in my opinion. I am not suggesting for a second that IT take prime responsibility, but to claim no responsibility whatsoever is invidious.

So yes either poor information, or a lack of information (both of which are IT’s fault – as well as that of non-IT business folk) are a contributory factors to the current problems.

Also, while IT managers see themselves as responsible only for some collateral department, semi-detached from the rest of the business, we will see poor IT and poor information continuing to contribute to business failure.

This is the second passage:

[…]

I just wonder how it is that IT people at such firms can say that any failures are 100% nothing to do with them, as opposed to say 1% responsibility, or something of that nature.

Part of the role of professionals working in BI is to change the organisation so that numerical decision making (backed up of course by many other things, including experience and judgement) becomes part of the DNA. We are to blame for this not being the case in many organisations and can’t simply throw our hands up and say “wasn’t me”.

[…]

I will freely admit that there was a large dose of Devil’s Advocate in my two responses. As I have stated at the beginning of this piece, I am not so masochistic to believe that IT caused the current financial crisis, however I do not think that IT can be fully absolved of all blame.

My concerns about IT’s role relate to the situation that I see in some companies where IT is a department set apart, rather than being a central part of the overall business. In this type of circumstance (which is perhaps more common than anyone would like to think), the success of the IT and the non-IT parts of the business are decoupled.

Under these arrangements, it would be feasible for IT to be successful and the business to suffer major losses, or for the business to post record profits while IT fails to deliver projects. Of couse such decoupling can happen in other areas; for example Product A could have a stellar year, while Product B fails miserably – the same could happen with countries or regions. However there is something else here, a sense that IT can sometimes be an organisation within an organisation, in a way that other service departments generally are not.

Rather than expanding further on this concept here, I recommend you read Jim Anderson’s excellent article Here’s What’s Really Wrong With IT And How To Fix It on his blog, The Business of IT. I think that there is a good deal of alignment between Jim and I on this issue; indeed I was very encouraged to find his blog and see that his views were not a million miles from my own.

I would also like to thank Patrick for posting his initial question. It’s good when on-line forums lead you to take an alternative perspective on things.
 

 
Continue reading about this area in: Two pictures paint a thousand words… and “Why taking a few punches on the financial crisis just might save IT” by Patrick Gray on TechRepublic.

Also check out Jill Dyché’s article: Dear IT: A Letter from Your Business Users
 

“Businesses Are Still Crazy for BI After All These Years” – CIO.com

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business intelligence, enterprise performance management, it business alignment, management information, technology , , , , , , , , , ,

Thomas Wailgum at CIO.com

Thomas Wailgum has written an article at CIO.com in which he talks about continuing demand for BI, but adds that this, in turn, suggests that in many organisations BI has yet to deliver on its promise. As Thomas puts it:

“I see pent-up enterprise-wide frustration, aimed squarely at IT and CIOs for failing to give the business what it needs and deserves”

He sees the fundamental problem as being fragmented systems and stand-alone BI applications. This sounds like challenges that I have faced before. I agree that BI only realises it potential when a more strategic and wide-ranging approach is taken. Something I refer to in many places on this blog, but possibly most directly in Holistic vs Incremental approaches to BI.

My basic point is that while it is sensible to take a pragmatic, incremental approach to implementing BI (collecting successes as you go and building momentum), this needs to be within the framework of a more encompassing vision for what the eventual BI system will be like and do.

I don’t believe that you can do BI by halves and remain somewhat sceptical about the claims of some of the newer BI products to do away with the necessary hard work.
 

Cindi Howson at Intelligent Enterprise on using BI to beat the downturn

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business intelligence, education, enterprise performance management, it business alignment, management information, technology , , , , , , , ,

cindi-howson-w250

Another interesting article, this time by Cindi Howson at Intelligent Enterprise. In this Cindi speaks about Four Business Intelligence Resolutions for 2009:

  1. Using BI to beat the downturn
  2. Developing a BI Strategy and Standardising
  3. Training Users, and
  4. Investing in yourself

I found some interesting parallels between Cindi’s thinking and my own. For item one, see the “BI and the Economic Crisis” category. For item two Holistic vs Incremental approaches to BI is possibly pertinent. Finally, I echo some of Cindi’s themes from item three in Education and cultural transformation.
 

 
Cindi Howson is the founder of BIScorecard, a Web site for in-depth BI product reviews. She has been using, implementing and evaluating business intelligence tools for more than 15 years. She is the author of Successful Business Intelligence: Secrets to Making BI a Killer App and Business Objects XI R2: The Complete Reference. She teaches for The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) and is a frequent speaker at industry events.
 

BI and the Economic Crisis

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business intelligence, enterprise performance management, management information, technology , , , , ,

economic-crisis-w200

Given the number of articles that have touched on this area, I have taken my own advice from a previous post and created a WordPress category of “BI and the Economic Crisis”. Hopefully this will be a helpful starting point for people looking to access a range of thoughts on this important subject.

The full category may be viewed here and posts relating to it on this site appear here.
 

More thoughts on BI in the Economic Crisis – this time from Forrester Research

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business intelligence, enterprise performance management, management information, technology , , , , , , , ,
zdnet-small forrester

At this rate I am going to have to create a “BI and the economic crisis category”. In this latest article on ZDNet, James Kobielus from Forester Research explores whether the BI market is really recession-proof.

Rather than making generalisations, James considers the potentially diverging fortunes of different players with different product sets. He highlights the benefits of having functionality that extends beyond traditional “core BI” areas and of strong customer relationships; either mediated by the BI vendor’s own professional services organisations, or strong ties with the major consultancies. A final differentiator that James identifies is strength in the growth area of business analytics.

The article is a thoughtful and insightful one, which I would recommend reading.
 

 
Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, consumer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 25 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

James Kobielus serves Information & Knowledge Management professionals. He is a leading expert on data warehousing, predictive analytics, data mining, and complex event processing.

ZDNet is part of CBS Interactive.
 

Gartner says “BI must transform and improve businesses”

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business intelligence, cultural transformation, enterprise performance management, technology , , , , ,

The title is paraphrased. The actual quote, as reported on BeyeNETWORK, is as follows: –

“Organizations will expect IT leaders in charge of BI and performance management initiatives to help transform and significantly improve their business,” said Nigel Rayner, research vice president of Gartner. “This year’s predictions focus on the need for BI and performance management to deliver greater business value.”

To me this immediately suggests one, potentially awkward, question – what on Earth have some BI initiatives been focussed on before 2009 if it was not transforming and improving business?
 

BeyeNETWORK article about the economy and BI

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business intelligence, enterprise performance management, technology , , , ,

beyenetwork

For obvious reasons, this has become something of a theme recently and is an area that I have touched on in two earlier posts: Will the economic crisis actually be positive for BI? and Pitching BI in difficult economic circumstances.

The BeyeNETWORK article by Nancy Williams provides an interesting perspective and some practical guidance for BI practitioners who are grappling with the current situation. It is and is well-worth reading.
 

 
BeyeNETWORK provides viewers with access to the thought leaders in business intelligence, performance management, business integration, information quality, data warehousing and more.
 
Nancy serves as Vice President of DecisionPath’s Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Consulting practice. She has more than 17 years of consulting and management experience, and is a highly sought after authority on data warehousing and business intelligence issues. Nancy is a regular instructor at TDWI World and Regional Conferences and has taught the TDWI Fundamentals and Data Modelling courses for a number of Fortune 500 companies and Government agencies. She holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a BS in Education from the University of Virginia.
 

Pitching BI in difficult economic circumstances

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business intelligence, enterprise performance management, it business alignment, management information, technology , , , ,
linkedin EPM Business Intelligence

This brief article simply reprises a response I made to a question on the LinkedIn.com EPM – Business Intelligence group (you will need to be a menber of LinkedIn.com and the group to view the link).

The essence of the question was what key BI-related words would resonate with Executive teams. Here is what I said: –
 

“In an unfavourable economic climate, many companies will be thinking first about survival and defensive measures. Only the very best will consider this environment an opportunity, and the very best will already have established BI that this part of their corporate DNA. Let’s rule these paragons out and think about the rest of the herd.

If you are focussed on survival, then it is probably worth extending the metaphor to think about an animal that is in a daily life-or-death situation. It would want to have as much information about impending threats as possible (what can I see?, what can I hear?, what can I smell?, etc.). It will err on the side of caution assuming that half-glimpsed shapes are potential predators and act accordingly. It will want to understand its current environment (how far am I from a place to hide?, are there other animals around who might also be a target – reducing the risk for me?, what is the terrain like and how fast can I move over it?, are there any blind-spots around me?, etc.).

Translating this into a business arena, maybe you can pitch BI by saying that when every penny is precious, having an in-depth understanding of what you do, what it costs, and what value it generates is crucial. Also understanding trends in your book of business is important; am I starting to lose business, if so, what types and why?, are prices eroding, if so, for what products and in which territories?, where are the pain points?, are there any areas that are still doing well that I could focus on more?, etc.

BI can play a major part in identifying what is going well and what is going badly. It can also track the impact of your current tactics, be these aggressive or defensive. Maybe these are some themes that you could pick up on.

When the seas are very rough, having good navigational equipment becomes essential to avoid running aground. “

 

 
My earlier article focusing on whether the economic crisis will be positive for BI may also be of interest in this area.

Since writing this article, I have penned some others in the same area and also found a number of interesting pieces elsewhere on the web. In response to this I have created a WordPress category “BI and the Economic Crisis“, which will hopefully provide a hub for this important area.
 

Will the economic crisis actually be positive for BI?

Peter James Thomas bi and the economic crisis, business, business intelligence, enterprise performance management, it business alignment, technology , , , , , , ,

This article was prompted to some extent by a discussion posted in the Enterprise Performance Management group on LinkedIn.com (the thread may be viewed here, but you will need to be both logged on to LinkedIn.com and a member of the group to view it).

DJI

The economic turmoil encompassing much of the world is certainly being felt in IT. As one of the largest areas of expenditure in an organisation, IT is always somewhere where it is tempting for those looking to make cuts to start. In many organisations, IT expenditure has been under pressure for many years as rising software costs have taken a larger chunk of overall expenditure. Replacement of obsolete hardware and software is also something that cannot be put off indefinitely and such work often further reduces the CIO’s room for manoeuvre. These factors tend to lead to either stagnant or reducing IT budgets. In some organisations, cuts are “democratically” spread across all areas of IT, but the more sophisticated operators will look to be selective. In this second type of organisation, it has been suggested that business intelligence (BI) may be one of the winners. This article explores this idea.

It is first of all important to realise that sometimes investment in BI is driven by a crisis. When things are going wrong, or have already gone wrong, then the instinctive reflex of CEOs is to want to know both what is happening and why. Often they will find that they do not have the tools in place to answer either of these questions and BI is the best way of addressing this need. In relation to the credit crunch, this type of BI investment can be thought of in the same way that greater focus was placed on control systems and internal auditing in the aftermath of the Enron and WorldCom debacles (they now seem a lifetime away don’t they?).

However, there are some things to be said against this. First, the current crisis is not within a single company, but across virtually all companies. Second, the factors behind the crisis are already apparent: a drying-up of commercial credit as banks do a 180° in their appetite for risk and seek to rebuild devastated balance sheets; and, proceeding from the first factor, a plunge in consumer and business confidence as individuals and companies face – at best – straitened financial circumstances and – at worst – insolvency. Of course the combination of these issues leads to a vicious circle. Good BI is not necessary to qualify these already crystal-clear problems.

Despite the systemic nature of the challenges, companies that have already made investments in BI will have tools at their disposal that are pertinent to navigating some aspects of the current financial difficulties. This should place them at a competitive advantage to organisations that have not been so foresighted. As ever corporate discomfort will not be spread evenly across the board. Whilst all companies will suffer, the strongest ones will suffer least. These organisations may even be able to take advantage of their competitors’ travails to expand market share and attract disaffected customers. One thing that will undoubtedly be a feature of the strongest companies is good BI. These observations may be enough to drive continued support of BI in organisations that already value it, they may even lead to a mild expansion in facilities. But what can we say about those companies that have not already invested in BI?

It is undeniable that creating good BI from scratch is both a lengthy and costly process. I would argue that – in normal circumstances – the payback is extremely positive; indeed BI is one of the highest-yielding types of IT projects. The challenge is that the financial crisis is biting deeply now and BI’s benefits are in the future; at least a year away for most organisations (though it is feasible that some interim solutions to the most pressing questions could be produced more rapidly). Is this a time at which senior management is likely to be receptive to an investment with a medium-to-long term payback, no matter how large that payback might be? The answer to this question probably lies in the degree to which the external crisis has been reflected in an internal crisis. If a company is fighting for its survival day-to-day, then existing BI will be invaluable, but BI with a delivery date in 12 months time is not likely to get very far up the priority list; paying suppliers and staff in the next few days is a more pressing issue.

So my opinion is that there is scope for expanded BI expenditure in those companies that have already made investments, this may be related to specific tools to help take advantage of customers deserting distressed competitors. There is also scope for BI projects to be initiated in companies that are suffering, but whose business is essentially sound. In these types of businesses decisions can still be taken with an eye on the medium term. However a balancing factor is that companies whose future is in the balance are very unlikely to see BI as a major contributor to any short-term turn-around strategy. In these organisations, slashing all IT expenditure is more likely to be the prevailing wisdom.

In aggregate it is difficult to work out the impact of these different trends on the BI market. This will depend sensitively on the triage of companies into the groups identified above. My unscientific sense is that BI may fare marginally better than many other elements of IT, but the overall outlook is negative in the short-term. However, for those companies that survive the down-turn and have not already put a BI strategy in place, it may well be that the area will see renewed interest once the economy reaches calmer waters. This realisation may well arise from noticing how much better those companies with good BI have fared in difficult market conditions.
 

 
Since writing this article, I have penned some others in the same area and also found a number of interesting pieces elsewhere on the web. In response to this I have created a WordPress category “BI and the Economic Crisis“, which will hopefully provide a hub for this important area.