Role of Information Technology

• A company that can not change the

way it thinks about Information
Technology can not reengineer
• A company that equates technology
with automation can not reengineer
• A company that looks for problems first
& then seeks technology solutions for
them can not reengineer

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Cont.

• I.T. plays a crucial role in business

reengineering but one that is easily miscast
• State – of – the – art I.T. is part of any
reengineering effort , an essential enabler
• But merely throwing I.T. at an existing
business problem does not cause it to be
reengineered
• In fact misuse of technology can block RE
altogether by reinforcing old ways of thinking
& old behaviour pattern
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 Inductive Thinking

• Business executives do not usually learn &

may not feel comfortable
• Most know how to think deductively
• Inductive thinking requires the ability to first
recognize a powerful solution & then seek
problems it might solve
• Fundamental error committed is to look at
I.T. through the lens of existing process
• Instead I.T. should be used to do what we
are not already doing
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Cont.

• RE unlike automation is about innovation

• Most difficult job of RE is in recognizing the
new unfamiliar capabilities of technology
instead of the familiar ones
• IBM founder also fell victim to this common
short sightedness
• 20 years later minicomputer was dismissed
as a toy
• 10 years after that PC received the same
reception
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Cont.

• Great power of PC did not lie in doing what

large machines already did but giving birth to
entirely new classes of application
• Lack o0f Inductive Thinking about technology
is not a new problem nor one confined to
laypeople
• Real power of xerography was completely
missed by no less a company than IBM
• Power of Xerox copier did not lie in replacing
carbon paper & other existing copying
technologies
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 Say’s Law

• Jean Baptiste Say French economist

observed supply creates its own demand
• People do not know they want something
until they see that they can have it ; then
they feel they can not live without it
• According to Allan Kay father of Personal
Computer “An important technology first
creates a problem, then solves it”
Market research done for a product that yet
does not exist is useless
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Cont.

• Breakthrough technology makes feasible

activities & actions people have not yet
dreamed of
• Challenge that most corporations fail to meet
is recognizing business possibilities that lie
latent in technology
Real power of technology is not that it can
make the old processes work better , but it
enables the organizations to break old rules
& create new new ways of working i.e. to
reengineer
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 Cont

• Breaking rules is how people learn to

think inductively about technology
during reengineering process
• Find long standing rules that
technology allows to break ,then see
what business opportunities get
created by breaking those rules
This insight gives company a powerful
tool for transforming its operations
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Cont.

• Rules were neither frivolous nor absurd when

they were first articulated . They were
expressions of wisdom people had derived
from experience
• But the advent of technology breaks the
reigning rules
It is this Disruptive Power of technology, its
ability to break the rules that limit how we
conduct our work, that makes it critical to
companies looking for competitive advantage
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 Rewriting the Rules of Game

• Old rule : Information can appear in

only one place at one time
• Disruptive technology : Shared data
bases
• New rule : Information can appear
simultaneously in as many places as it
is needed

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Cont.

• When information is captured on paper &

stored in a folder , only one person can use it
at a time
• Making copies & distributing them is not
always feasible & in any event leads to
creation of multiple & eventually inconsistent
versions of the file
Consequently work involving this information tends
to be structured sequentially with one individual
completing task & then passing the folder to the
next in the line
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Cont.

• Old rule : Only experts can perform

complex work

• Disruptive technology : Expert systems

• New rule : A generalist can do the work

of an expert
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Cont.

• Sophisticated organizations have learnt

that there is more money in not being
dumb than in being smart
• Real value of expert system technology
lies in allowing relatively unskilled
people to operate nearly at the level of
highly trained experts
Due this change , order-of-magnitude improvements
in cycle time ,accuracy & cost can be achieved
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Cont.

• Old rule : Businesses must choose

between centralization &
decentralization
• Disruptive technology :
Telecommunications network
• New rule : Businesses can
simultaneously reap the benefits of
centralization & decentralization

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Cont.

• Experience teaches that the people in the

field generally work best if they can make
their own decisions
• If old technologies were depended upon
central management control had to be
sacrificed in order to achieve flexible &
responsive field operations
With shared capability every field office can
be part of HQ & vice versa

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Cont.

• Old rule : Managers make all decisions

• Disruptive technology :Decision support

tools ( data base access , modeling
software )

• New rule : Decision making is part of

everyone’s job
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Cont.

• Cost of hierarchical decision making are

now too high to bear. Decisions get
made too slowly for a fast paced
market
When accessible database is combined
with easy to use analysis & modeling
tools front line workers suddenly have
sophisticated decision making
capabilities
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Cont.

• Old rule : Field personnel need offices

where they can receive , store ,
retrieve & transmit information
• Disruptive technology : Wireless data
communication & portable computers

• New rule : Field personnel can send &

receive information wherever they are

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Cont.

• Wireless data communication relies on

technology similar to that used in cellular
telephones with the important difference that
it allows users to send data instead of or in
addition to voice
• With increasingly miniaturized terminals &
computers people can connect to information
sources wherever they are
Earlier new rule made offices autonomous &
this new rule eliminates the need for office
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Cont.

• Old rule : The best contact with the

potential buyer is personal contact

• Disruptive technology : Interactive

videodisk

• New rule : The best contact with a

potential buyer is effective contact
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Cont.

• The initial application of this technology was

in training , but the potential power of
interactive video far transcends this domain
• Customers can select a product from a menu,
watch a video presentation about it , ask
questions , then order it with a credit card-
all without human intervention
The process may seem cold & impersonal but
customers find it preferable to the usual
retail experience as salesperson is mostly
uninformed
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Cont.

• Old rule : You have to find out where

things are

• Disruptive technology : Automatic

identification & tracking technology

• Things tell you where they are

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Cont.

A company that knows in real time

where its trucks are , or railcars or
service technicians for that matter ,
does not need as many of them. It
does not require as much redundancy
in personnel , equipment & materials to
cover the delays inherent in locating
and rerouting things & people in transit

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Cont.

• Old rule :Plans get revised periodically

• Disruptive technology : High -

performing computing

• New rule :Plans get revised

instantaneously

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Cont.

• The sheer capacity of increasingly affordable

computing power creates new application
possibilities for companies

A computer supplied with real time data from

point of sale terminals ,commodity markets &
even weather forecasts could constantly
adjust the schedule to match real time , not
historic , needs

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 Technology Exploitation

Companies need to do this as one of

their core competencies if they are to
succeed in a period of ongoing
technological change . Those better
able to recognize & realize the
potentials of new technology will enjoy
a continuing & growing advantage over
their competitors

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 Competitive Advantage

• Those who know as to what they are going

to do with technology before it becomes
available will be ready to deploy it when it
does become available . These companies
ask for technology that they need well before
it appears on the market
It is entirely possible to stay three years ahead of
the market on technology . It takes time to move
from laboratory to market ; there does not exist a
technology that will become important in three years
that is not demonstrable today
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Journey from familiar to Unknown

• As an essential enabler modern IT has

an importance to RE process that is
difficult to overstate
Its disruptive power takes us to a world
where we can bend the accepted rules
& write the new ones . It is not a
destination but a journey from known
to unknown

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