If Information Technology (IT) investments do not improve productivity, what is the point of the new technology? However, many a time the problem is not with the new technology but the inability of organizations to improve its business practices around these technologies.
One of the best case studies I can think of was the repeated comments by the German born SAP leader at the initiation of SAP to UNICEF was that to benefit from SAP; UNICEF would also have to change its business practices. This apparently has not happened.
Prior to introducing SAP in 1995, it took four months to close the annual accounts in UNICEF with the old legacy system. Ten years later with SAP running, it still takes four months to close the annual books of account. Why is it that changing the way we crunch numbers made no difference in the time it takes to close the annual accounts? Is the software to blame?
Any watch, however expensive, will only give you the time, but it will not tell you how well you are spending your time.
It is a tragedy for organizations to miss the opportunities that IT creates by refusing to change its business practices.
Last week I walked in to a jewelers store and saw watches going for as much as $5,000 and over. Then I also visited Wall Mart and saw watches as inexpensive as $10-15 with 10-year battery lives. I picked one for $14.99 because this watch will give me the same time as the over $5,000 watch. However, neither watch will tell me how well to spend my time.
Posted by: Merrill Cassell | July 26, 2006 at 07:43 AM