A new "window" into the technology world.

If you have read Nicholas Carr’s article in the Harvard Business Review or his book called “IT doesn’t Matter” you will get an idea of how important business processes are to technology. I do not use the term “Information Technology” any longer because the idea is that business exists to serve technology, not the other way around. All the previous enigmas of software that generated so much revenue can no longer produce the rapid returns received before the internet boom. Business processes are now the priorty. Principly, I've taken the following actions

1) I refer to IT needs to be Business Process Technology (BPT or BT)

2) Develope only in Open Source code and platforms, where I have access the source binaries and can maintain and update its operation based on current business needs.

3) Strive for applied data processing principles (i.e. Data Engineering, Object Oriented Programming, etc.) to enhance business processes and not to serve as a fiscal goal to ISVs.

 

[jsteph]

I refer to IT needs to be Business Process Technology (BPT or BT)

And how's that working out for you?

I'm being somewhat facetious...I think most people realize that IT exists to serve the business, but I doubt the terminology will change very soon.

And I'm not talking about businesses that *are* IT, such as a software house or consulting firm. Most businesses I know and have worked for certainly look upon the IT dept and technology in general as important, but they will not be run by IT. Where I am now, our business processes have evolved specifically to relegate IT to 'non-mission-critical' status.

That is, we're a mid-sized business (slightly less than 1 Bil. sales annually), and we have 2 IBM P-690's, a dozen Citrix servers, another dozen Windows servers, several hundred Wyse terminals, and a couple thousand PC workstations. Every one of them could go down and our business (construction products delivery) would continue to operate.

Slower, yes. Frazzled employees, sure. But our products would still get out the door--all of them. All order details are pre-printed on paper for this very reason and hastily hand-written delivery tickets would be used for filling the order. Billing might be a few days late, and there would definitely be some problems, but we won't lose business due to IT problems.
--Jim

 

[dmooreora]

Thank-you for replying,

I agree with your statement that most business consider IT as a business tool and at least as a value-added part of doing business.

I am in the construction materials business. We also have issues where if our customer's servers were to go down, they could still process tickets. Albeit, it would be very difficult. Since the company I work for specifically creates software for the Aggregate, Concrete and Cement industries, companies that in the past may not had relied on our products are now using them for everything such as tracking and scheduling through GPS technology.

I guess that I am looking at this through the relationship with VARs, ISVs, etc. When running a business, IT (or BPM) decisions should be based on the requirements and needs of business processes, not the technological potential. If you recall when B2B was so popular. It was great because there as a potential to create seamless supply-chain management between all sorts of entities. But eventually, technology was implemented without regard to industry standards. Security was an after-thought. It was, get it done now!

 

[jsteph]

dmooreora,
Are you familiar with Command-Data or Systech? Those are two companies in that industry who's software I'm familiar with,
--Jim

 

[dmooreora]

Hi,

I work for a company called Command Alkon, which use to be Command Data. We create a product called COMMANDseries.

http://www.commandalkon.com.

He have more than 80% of the market.

 

[jsteph]

Ah, yes. I'm with Prairie, near Chicago. We used to use Command-data, and now use Systech. Systech's main office happens to be minutes from our headquarters, I think that's part of the reason they got the nod.

Part of the business process we use today is an evolution of what you'd alluded to--we're a company that in the past had not relied upon technology to get our business done.

So those old business processes (pre-printing paper orders, hand writing tickets, etc) are still in place. Now with the integration of gps systems(we used to use Trimble, but now are mostly Teletrac and Trakit), it's sometimes hard to believe we survived without that technology. But when those gps systems go down, it's back to the relatively low-tech two-way radio tracking ("where are you?"), which is a real headache.
--Jim

 

[dmooreora]

I have heard of Trimble; we interface with them through a Message Queue. We have some customers who use it. I've also have heard of Systech being bounced around here in our office. I've been working here for about a year. I think that the biggest growth in this market is going to be dispatching, batch processing, Tracking/GPS technology. Those are REAL money savers. It can be a REAL headache to do all that stuff manually.

Maybe the old rules still apply. As a tech guy, I always looking to free business processes from tyrany of proprietary software. But in our business, is that really important? I don't think so. Personally as a developer, I want to grow. But Dispatchers want one thing, a system that is realiable. Good Luck.