Staying Competitive in today’s Information Flooded Market

What makes a truly outstanding corporation, one with which you look forward to doing business? The common denominators in today's markets contain fixed markers, beyond the boundaries of which there is little to differentiate one from another. As the world becomes smaller due to rapid and wide dissemination of information, the playing field upon which we execute our business strategy becomes more level. Competitive differentiators become more difficult to claim. One more web site, one more 'differentiator'...truly, in the art of doing business, there is nothing new under the sun. Differentiation comes about in the execution of process – the 'how', not the 'what' of your strategy.

Differentiation requires passion...passion for improvement...passion for change...passion for quality...passion to serve. This passion for serving – our customers, our suppliers, our stockholders, our communities – requires that we integrate our disparate information systems and business processes, aligning them with the vision and strategy so proudly pronounced in our Mission Statement. And a passion for quality in our interactions with all stakeholders requires us to truly integrate our business systems. 

One of the first principles of indigenous peoples all over the world is to honor the fact that we are all part of one reality. Here in North America, interconnectedness is frequently represented by a spider web. The more connected one is to one's world, the larger the web; the larger the web, the more connections maintained outside it. The more firm your connections, the more stable the web. The larger and more stable the web, the more abundance you capture. This is simply the natural order of our world. Though this analogy has been widely related to the individual in relation to his world, it seems evident that this interconnectedness would be a competitive advantage were it achieved in our business processes as well. 

What is the connecting filament of a strong, yet flexible, business web? Some would say it is the process map required to transform a vision statement into a functional plan, and then monitor it. I find this an abstract and incomplete statement and would posit that the connecting filament is our ability to easily navigate among the many varied relationships involved in our business processes. To navigate confidently among all these processes requires technology – an integrated intelligence solution built holistically. A firm without strong relationships between its IT investments and its business strategy may succeed in accumulating crucial information, but perhaps would have been even more successful in analyzing and disseminating that information had they considered interconnectedness and effectiveness when planning its processes. A well designed intelligence solution, incorporating all the processes engaged in to accomplish business objectives, is a must in order to provide differentiation in today's markets, which are experiencing rapid change on a more even playing field.

Strategy answers the question of what we want to do, but not how it can be done. The 'how' in any attempt to implement a strategic solution is the key to success. Most process engineers look at the issue of BI as a top-down strategy. I would like to challenge you to think of it as bottom-up. How can we help? How can we be of service? Build our systems to answer these questions, map the relationships between the answers, and the resulting system will cross the many operational arenas where you conduct your business.

Well-designed cross-operational systems are a must in order to stay competitive in today's information flooded market. How many times have you used a Search Engine for a very specific interest and been overwhelmed by the results returned to you? Or found redundant results to a query too broad? The same principle applies to information within a business entity. How many times and in how many systems do you store a customer's name, address, and sales information? Accounts Receivable, Sales Ledger, General Ledger, the mailing list, Advertising department, the Marketing department's published Case Study, personal phone book of the Regional Sales Director, etc. ad nauseam. The technology provided by a virtual world has offered process management an opportunity to evolve beyond traditional (and, in many cases, redundant) operational systems, providing the ability to access a much broader stakeholder base and a single platform from which to mine, analyze and disseminate the resulting information. 

Passion and integrated, holistic business systems are not commonplace in most markets. Yet, this passion and the ease of doing business in an efficient, integrated manner is what will separate those to whom we return with relief from those with whom we do business reluctantly, as a last resort. And we now have the technology to provide that ease and efficiency, available via the connecting filament of the virtual world – the Internet.

It is crucial that designers consider access and analysis as a priority in process management. With it we can develop holistic, intelligent systems that still answer our fundamental questions: Who is the customer and who is driving the process? What is the goal and what materials do we have to work with? When does the product become less than meaningful? Where do we focus our attention in order to produce the most positive results? How do we produce that result, given the resources we have available to us? How do we increase these resources if needed? What is the cost of that increase? Who can provide it? Why do we want to grow? Does it fit into the strategy we have developed at the top? Are the costs greater than the potential benefit?

Again, I'd like to challenge you to think of BI as a bottom-up strategy. How can we help? How can we be of service? How are we connected? Which common technology platform will serve all of our stakeholders? How can we reduce costs without layoffs? Improve cost performance by relieving all the resources required to maintain and coordinate all those disparate information systems. IT departments are overwhelmed with SOX compliance planning. Most good managers care a great deal about their team members and do not support the thoughtless approach called 'down-sizing'. All would welcome an opportunity to reduce costs, increase performance and provide genuine value to the company.

Written by Kay Mejia, Data Management Group Senior Consultant