CHAPTER ONE: FROM GENESIS TO REVOLUTION
Que sera, sera, what will IT4B.
What is IT4B? It sounds like another acronym designed by IT to fool the business into thinking IT is of vague interest to the business community. Well, this is IT for business, to help the business side of the house determine whether IT is 'aligned' or 'integrated', and what is missing (and something will always be missing). Of course, when it comes to the digitisation of information services, IT will be in the driver's seat, meaning IT4B becomes a tool for both parties to determine gaps in requirements, competence, capabilities and even knowledge of the various methods needed to move from business-designed objectives to IT-delivered services.
The primary goal is to assess the readiness of the business and its IT support to achieve business goals. Business goals are supported by business processes; in regulated markets that depend on IT for efficiency, there is not a lot of point in implementing an IT method before identifying what needs to be achieved by the business.
Figure 1.1: The IT4B lens
Figure 1.1 illustrates the subject areas covered by this way of thinking. IT4B is a structured way of thinking, supported by detailed examination of the most common attributes in an enterprise. As described in the introduction, this is the lens, a model through which we examine business and IT readiness. Three linked components - the Benefit Model, the Enterprise Architecture and the Operating Model - are used to focus the issues illustrated around the circumference of the model. In the centre, the icons we use to describe elements that always need attention are shown; these elements will be identified later. For now, this chapter introduces the model and the reason we built it, and outlines what will be discussed later.
Providing the necessary structure to facilitate digital innovation is often a challenge. Based on our more than 20 years of research and experience at the interface of business and IT, an approach emerged that helps translate business goals into digital 'ambitions' and a roadmap in a practical (non-technical) manner. Using a set of simple canvasses, you gain insight into the steps you can take to transform your organisation into a digital enterprise.
As we mentioned it is not a 'new' IT method; existing good practice methods are referenced, not altered, and we explain how they can work more effectively when used together.
The focus is the realisation of the opportunity that IT presents. If only your IT 'innovation' was focused on the future of the business and the business market in which it operates rather than implementing the latest method, software or technology.
More often than not, your IT people expect you to understand their language and claim that it is impossible for the business to articulate what they need or want. Most, if not all, of the IT frameworks and models don't help with 'translation' of business requirements. The result is that a rapid response to a business problem is most often based on finding help in one of the IT best practices familiar to the enterprise.
In these circumstances, IT is a roadblock to innovation. Instead of examining the principles of, say, efficiency and effectiveness in relation to how quickly they can respond to the business when new services are needed or in times of crisis, the default response is to examine their various models of best practices to see where they fit into a process they understand.
The philosophy behind IT4B is that the full potential of digital innovation (Figure 1.2) can only be achieved if it is successfully embedded within a benefit model, an enterprise architecture and your enterprise's operating model. On the other hand, the true power of digital innovation can only be fully enjoyed if your enterprise has reached a certain level of digital readiness. The foundation of successful digital transformation is constructed when there is equilibrium between digital readiness and digital innovation. The IT4B framework and canvasses enable enterprises to discover the opportunities for digital innovation and create a digital profile of their specific enterprise. The goal is to illustrate how to use the model and the myriad methods that exist in IT to reach the appropriate level of digital readiness.
Figure 1.2: Digital innovation
No one in IT ever tries to do a bad job or provide poor customer service; the issue is that IT professionals are most often directly recruited and are therefore intrinsically IT-centric - they have no experience of the business in which they operate and thus seem distanced from understanding what is going on. Consider again the issue of regulated markets: who would you expect to be the subject-matter expert? It certainly would not be the people running the data centre.
Discovering the missing pieces is often a navel-gazing IT exercise, which arrives at a number of fairly standard responses. We need our IT people to be certified in architecture, or a development method, or a programming method, or a method to manage projects. Often the result requires significant management attention and the entire enterprise is said to be in need of some form of recognised external audit badge, or sometimes more money to buy more 'tools'.
It is not focused on making sure IT understands business.
Figure 1.3: Using both halves of the brain for business and IT
Just as the focus for healthcare should be the health of the population, the focus of every digital innovation should be 'business first'.
Business-first approaches require insight into the enterprise and its processes. It can be helpful to take a bimodal approach to the business processes by discerning two distinctive categories: 'left-brain' processes (logic, analytic, linear, mathematical, facts) and 'right-brain' processes (creative, imagination, holistic, visual, experience). This is shown in Figure 1.3, which illustrates having to keep opposing and often contradictory arguments at the same time in different parts of the brain.
In the early days of IT, the focus was almost entirely on supporting 'left-brain' processes. Nowadays, 'right-brain' solutions are being hyped. However, both types of processes deserve equal attention to achieve a well-balanced functional fit.
Business first also should mean that discussions about IT should take place after the business requirement is fully understood.
Figure 1.4: Balancing the high-level concerns
The first step in understanding the lens and the IT4B approach is context. When it comes to digital innovation, balance is everything, which is why it's one of the key principles of the IT4B framework. Let's begin with an explanation of the icons at the centre of the lens model. At the heart of the lens, we find a representation of the enterprise benefit model (Figure 1.4) as a balance between 'need' and 'value', and 'mission' and 'capability'. This can be a customer need and a business value proposition as well as a public need and a public value proposition.
Mission and Capability are often in tension: without the necessary capabilities, any mission is impossible. Similarly, Need and Value are in tension: what is needed is often not valued and vice versa. For example, the business might need block chain technology, as many logistics businesses have discovered, but the value is the elimination of the business problems that have plagued shipping for many years, not the technology.
The benefit model is applicable to both profit and non-profit enterprises. There also needs to be a balance between an enterprise mission and the required capabilities to achieve these goals. The benefit model helps you to gain insight into the challenges an enterprise faces and is the first step in designing a strategy for digital innovation.
Figure 1.5: Multiple perspectives
Next, we consider the perspectives that will be addressed when innovating business services. The step is to perceive the lens model in context: business, information, applications (services) and technology (Figure 1.5). The degree of impact of each of these perspectives will alter depending on where you are in terms of thinking about new business. When discussing new ideas, business requirements have absolute priority, though, of course, the potential of technology will be discussed. At the other end of the scale, when operations are running 'business as usual' then technology might be the most important perspective.
With a fully visualised enterprise architecture, the likely impact of any business decision or (digital) innovation can be illustrated quickly; the iconography is intended to be aesthetically pleasing and simple to follow.
Nowadays, all enterprises use IT in many forms. Some even use IT for purposes other than updating Facebook or tweeting. A digital enterprise goes way beyond just using IT as a business enabler; it has basically merged the primary business process(es) with IT. Who ever thought that a taxi ride (Uber) would become a digital service? Or an overnight stay (Airbnb)? However, there is rarely a digital transformation that starts from a greenfield situation.
Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)
This section discusses business and IT digital services.
Figure 1.6: IT4B quadrants
No matter how 'digital' a transformation might be, there is still the important human factor to consider. Successful...
