Cutter's Kellen Reveals 10-Point Plan to Focus IT on Customers
Firms tend to shield the IT shop from real customers. Product executives and their staff manage the product design and development process. This staff usually looks at how technology can potentially help the customer-business gap. CIOs should build a multifaceted plan to reorient their IT shops around the real customer, the one that gives the firm money.
Arlington, MA, October 24, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Most firms, being primarily product- and not customer-centric, shield the IT shop from real customers. Product executives and their staff manage the product design and development process. This staff usually looks at how technology can potentially help the customer-business gap. But the customer's digital experience is sometimes shorted.
"In my scorecard," says Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Vince Kellen, "most firms' customer-facing business processes are not firing on all cylinders. Most firms still can't quite get their collective minds around the customers' problems and sustain their efforts year over year. Most firms still underuse technology to help monitor their customers. Moreover, many inside the firms know this."
But CIOs and their IT shops have a lot to contribute. Some in IT do have deep insight into the customer's world and deep insight into the possibilities within IT. Says Kellen, "Good customer-centric IT innovation lies at the intersection of these two worlds. We need more tech-savvy business people and more business-savvy IT people and most of all, we need more people, within IT and in business units, to be immersed in the customer's world."
What Should a CIO Do?
According to Kellen, once CIOs get their "trains running on time," they should build a multifaceted plan to reorient their IT shops around the real customer, the one that gives the firm money. The multifaceted plan can involve the following:
1.Establish a culture of customer service within IT.
2.Within IT, build intellectual capital of deeper customer issues, not just intellectual capital into technology architectures.
3.Bring this intellectual capital as a value-add service to the other parts of the firm, including marketing, sales, logistics, and service.
4.Start fostering innovation. Contribute to, if not lead, R&D in customer-centric IT.
5.Prioritize improvements in parts of the IT infrastructure that can address the technology or business process shortcomings, especially customer data quality and data integration.
6.Revamp IT processes that support the real customers and improve IT support service levels.
7.Help the firm identify gaps in the customer's experience and how IT can assist in closing those gaps.
8.Build an IT organization that is quick, flexible, adaptable, and reconfigurable so it can move fast on topical customer-facing initiatives.
9.Invest in the personnel and organizational development needed to make this happen.
10.Put into place strong usability and customer experience analysis methodologies that can uncover real issues with the customer experience and can develop real solutions.
11.Work with the other executives and ensure the IT plan is not only aligned with the business and customer strategies, but that the IT plan is actually challenging these plans and improving them.
Kellen offers this advice: "IT is much more than just a technical platform. IT connects the disparate parts of the firm. The CIO and the IT unit are literally at the center of all things in the company. The firm-wide cultural and business process implications require IT's attention. IT can and should contribute its part in helping the firm improve the customer's experience. Because firms are finding this difficult enough, it is high time for IT to step forward and contribute."
To request a copy of the Business-IT Strategies E-Mail Advisor in which Vince Kellen made these remarks, or to schedule an interview with Cutter Senior Consultant Vince Kellen (http://www.cutter.com/meet-our-experts/kellenv.html), contact Kim Leonard (+1 781 641 5111 or kleonard at cutter dot com).
About Cutter
Cutter Consortium is a unique IT advisory firm, comprising a group of more than 150 internationally recognized experts who have come together to offer research, consulting, training, and executive education to our clients. These experts are committed to delivering top-level, critical, and objective advice. They are helping companies deal with issues in the core areas of business-IT strategy, enterprise agility and innovation, agile software development and product and project management, enterprise architecture, business technology trends, risk management, metrics, team building and leadership development, business intelligence, social networking/Web 2.0, and sourcing.
Find this release online at http://www.cutter.com/press/081016.html
###
"In my scorecard," says Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Vince Kellen, "most firms' customer-facing business processes are not firing on all cylinders. Most firms still can't quite get their collective minds around the customers' problems and sustain their efforts year over year. Most firms still underuse technology to help monitor their customers. Moreover, many inside the firms know this."
But CIOs and their IT shops have a lot to contribute. Some in IT do have deep insight into the customer's world and deep insight into the possibilities within IT. Says Kellen, "Good customer-centric IT innovation lies at the intersection of these two worlds. We need more tech-savvy business people and more business-savvy IT people and most of all, we need more people, within IT and in business units, to be immersed in the customer's world."
What Should a CIO Do?
According to Kellen, once CIOs get their "trains running on time," they should build a multifaceted plan to reorient their IT shops around the real customer, the one that gives the firm money. The multifaceted plan can involve the following:
1.Establish a culture of customer service within IT.
2.Within IT, build intellectual capital of deeper customer issues, not just intellectual capital into technology architectures.
3.Bring this intellectual capital as a value-add service to the other parts of the firm, including marketing, sales, logistics, and service.
4.Start fostering innovation. Contribute to, if not lead, R&D in customer-centric IT.
5.Prioritize improvements in parts of the IT infrastructure that can address the technology or business process shortcomings, especially customer data quality and data integration.
6.Revamp IT processes that support the real customers and improve IT support service levels.
7.Help the firm identify gaps in the customer's experience and how IT can assist in closing those gaps.
8.Build an IT organization that is quick, flexible, adaptable, and reconfigurable so it can move fast on topical customer-facing initiatives.
9.Invest in the personnel and organizational development needed to make this happen.
10.Put into place strong usability and customer experience analysis methodologies that can uncover real issues with the customer experience and can develop real solutions.
11.Work with the other executives and ensure the IT plan is not only aligned with the business and customer strategies, but that the IT plan is actually challenging these plans and improving them.
Kellen offers this advice: "IT is much more than just a technical platform. IT connects the disparate parts of the firm. The CIO and the IT unit are literally at the center of all things in the company. The firm-wide cultural and business process implications require IT's attention. IT can and should contribute its part in helping the firm improve the customer's experience. Because firms are finding this difficult enough, it is high time for IT to step forward and contribute."
To request a copy of the Business-IT Strategies E-Mail Advisor in which Vince Kellen made these remarks, or to schedule an interview with Cutter Senior Consultant Vince Kellen (http://www.cutter.com/meet-our-experts/kellenv.html), contact Kim Leonard (+1 781 641 5111 or kleonard at cutter dot com).
About Cutter
Cutter Consortium is a unique IT advisory firm, comprising a group of more than 150 internationally recognized experts who have come together to offer research, consulting, training, and executive education to our clients. These experts are committed to delivering top-level, critical, and objective advice. They are helping companies deal with issues in the core areas of business-IT strategy, enterprise agility and innovation, agile software development and product and project management, enterprise architecture, business technology trends, risk management, metrics, team building and leadership development, business intelligence, social networking/Web 2.0, and sourcing.
Find this release online at http://www.cutter.com/press/081016.html
###
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Cutter Consortium
Kim Leonard
781-648-8700
www.cutter.com
Kim Leonard
781-648-8700
www.cutter.com
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