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ISQS 4385 STRATIGIC IT & TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT – 12
When developing an IT strategy the most important consideration is to review strategic and
tactical goals and align them with the technology’s projects and goals. For instance if your
company goal is to become “a leading provider in home health solutions”, then you have to ask
how are we going to achieve that goal?
First you start with a review of your company’s strategic plan. After reviewing your strategic and
tactical plans it becomes more apparent where technology could improve or benefit your
company. When reviewing the budget for the project, then one must consider how the project
will contribute to the strategic goals of their organization.
According to CFAR (Center for Applied Research) if you think about strategy as ecology it can
help businesses make decisions that can have a positive effect on the network that it depends on.
The strategic planning should be a process that everyone is a part of. IT and business should
complement and support each other. Different perspectives are crucial for success. Making it a
democratic process is not the way to develop fresh ideas or capture crucial information from
your clients or competitors. Strategy development is a two-way street for IT and business. If the
goals of both the business and IT are not in alliance with one another then it is very unlikely that
the business and IT will be striving for the same success.
The next step would be to collect information from the senior executives to the lower level staff.
Information must be collected in ways where the analysis can show various trends and direction.
To collect this data we often use:
 Questionnaires and Surveys
 SWOT Analysis
 Departmental Interviews
 Individual Interviews
After we collect the data then it should be sorted to find consistent themes such as:
 Is the organization being looked at as an early adopter or innovator?
 Where are you in compared to your competition – a laggard or late majority
 Lack of training or support
Often the size and scope of some IT organizations varies greatly mainly due to the difference of
customer base (some will use residents only and others will use residents and business users as
well).
Not to long ago the job of the IT person was to work around the business’ strategy and find a
way to support it. Because of the IT managers’ limited understanding of the business strategy
and the business managers’ lack of understanding of the potential of IT the contribution to
company was inhibited.

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Presently IT is leading the way and certain business models are under attack because new
technology is changing the way they do business or deliver products. This doesn’t necessarily
mean, that because the tables have turned that companies are developing more effective IT
strategies. Businesses must create a strategy that must be more interactive with IT and IT
strategy must become more dynamic itself and create a strategy that supports a variety of
changing business objectives. Managers, both business and IT, will develop a strategy/process
that continually involves IT and business jointly.
Chapter 21: Linking IT to Business Metrics
1. Why do you think it has been so difficult to link the performance of IT to business
metrics over the past several decades?
RESPONSE:
It is argued that one of the keys to the link of the performance of IT to business metrics is
the fact that a lack of overall performance by IT and the connectivity of the business itself
cause a chasm between the two. IT used to belong in the basement – a separate entity
heard from but not to be seen. However, the business side of the organization is realizing
the importance of IT and the role they play in success. The bottom dollar is not always
the best measuring stick to gauge success by. It also concerns non-financial measures as
well. You must have customer and employee satisfaction to ensure business success.
Over the past few decades most of IT department customers were employees with the
business and the employees’ satisfaction consisted of their like or dislike of the IT
department. However, that is beginning to change. The fact of e-business and self-service
systems, IT has become vital to external customers as well as internal.
This is an important part to link business metrics to the value of IT. There are three levels
of measurement and accountability according the text. They are:
 Enterprise Measures – Incorporate IT’s performance directly to the business
organization.
 Functional Measures – Measures the functionality of the department itself.
 Project Measures – Grades the performance of a particular projects and people and
how they provide value to the business.
Up until this time IT has paid close attention to these issues whereas the business
organization has been lacking.

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2. What has change over the past several years to allow IT to be considered a viable
“player” in the overall success of a business?
RESPONSE:
The biggest change in recent years that caused businesses to view IT as value rather than
just a necessary evil is the ability of the business to see the big picture of success rather
than just a small section. Everyone in the organization including IT must see and
understand the heart and goal of the business and what makes it work. Each one must be
held accountable for the success of the business as whole and not just their little corner of
it. If the business in its entirety is organized and well informed then success becomes the
goal.
Many companies use a measurement system such as a balanced score card or sometimes
referred to a dashboard. This allows the business to integrate with IT, the intangible
assets such as customer relationships, employee skills, and information technology. Until
recently, IT has not played a part in this overall system. Typically, IT was more
concerned with their own success internally – projects completed, completed on schedule
and staying under budget. However, that approach is changing. Think of a business like
making a pie. Each department is an ingredient. If you have too much of one ingredient
and not enough of another, your pie will taste terrible. So it is with the business and all of
its departments too much of one and not enough of another will possibly cause the
business to fail.
3. What are your thoughts regarding Value-Based Management (VBM) and how it can
positivity impact how IT is considered in an organization?
RESPONSE:
Value-based management evaluates the contributions of each unit within the organization
and how they promote the value or worth of the business. This perhaps is a tell sign of
justification of this specific unit. As has been stated before, IT is now making its presence
known within the company. They are no longer the outcast hidden away in the basement,
but are front and center providing true performance and putting the company ahead. A
small survey was conducted amongst fifty large firms asking if they felt their IT
department was a making a valued contribution to their company. The results were
surprising with the responses being somewhat mixed. While some of the responses were
positive, indicating that their IT had indeed made a valuable contribution to their
company, others were rather negative.
Clearly there is no absolute litmus test to prove results one-way or the other. However,
the results should be measured by the success of the company, as a whole, rather than just
an individual department. Although financial results of a company’s success is typically
the measurement that CEO’s use, there are other factors that are non-financial
measurements. The customer-base satisfaction is perhaps one the most important
contributing factors to the continued success of the company. Due to the recent surge in

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e-commerce, one cannot stress how important IT is to this measurement. IT is becoming
flexible to include self-service systems and external customers as well as the ever-present
internal customers.
4. As a possible future employee in a large company, what do you think about having a
portion of you salary linked to business metrics?
RESPONSE:
Having been in the business world of mortgage banking, I have experienced lean times
and fruitful times. If I worked consistently to reach a customer and my office mate sat
back and relaxed I would not consider that having a portion of your salary being linked to
business metrics a good idea. Bonuses on the other hand single out that individual that is
a high-achiever and rewards that person. In certain businesses and situations the 100%
commission is a strong driving force for success for the individual as well as the
company.
The Goal of IT Metrics is to demonstrate that what a company spends on IT has a direct
impact on the performance of the firm. The direct impact can be measured in layers such
as peeling an onion - attempting to show how IT is adding value to the project by a
project-to-project basis. For example:
 You increase the speed of the access to the information
 Increase the use of the technology
 Improve decision-making
 Improve customer satisfaction
The key to linking IT to business performance is to create an environment where
everyone understands what measures are important to the business and are accountable
for them – align the IT strategy and business strategy. This implies that both strategies are
developed together and not separately or as an afterthought of the other.
Although, some businesses see having one’s salary linked to business metrics as a
successful driving factor to profitability, in my opinion simple accountability is a stronger
tool. Holding one’s feet to the fire [accountable for ‘their’ actions or lack there of] will be
the true measure of success. Take into consideration that not all projects are equal. For
example out of 100 projects approximately 10 of them might get a return of almost 80 –
85% overall business value. Whereas, the remaining 90 will have a very small and
possibly even negative numbers towards the value of the business.
That’s not to say all projects are created equal or are all projects high up on the important
scale. With this evaluation, you are able to crunch the outcome numbers and readjust
your portfolio accordingly.

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Section IV Mini Cases
1. Read each of the three Mini Cases in Section IV and pick one and answer the Discussion
Questions.
Managing Technology at Genex Fuels
1. What evidence is the CEO using to suggest that Genex is not using technology
competitively? Does this provide a valid argument?
RESPONSE:
The CEO's primary evidence that suggest Genex is not using technology
competitively is the fact he feels Genex is not operating as one business, but as many
disjointed parts. He doesn’t think the IT department can use technology competitively
because they can’t seem to get ahead of the curve. Every time he ask for IT to
respond to a new idea he has researched, he is told by IT that it cannot work for one
reason or another. He also believes that the IT department should be more flexible
and responsive like they used to be. It’s not necessary to have the latest and the
greatest technology to be competitive; however, it is possible for any organization to
stay competitive by making the most of what they do have and sharing the same
mindset.
2. Did Devlin need to hire Sandy, a “high-priced technology consultant,” to tell him
technology at Genex was a mess?
RESPONSE:
I believe it was important for Devlin to hire Sandy because fresh ideas are sometimes
easier to swallow from someone who did not come up through the ranks as many other
employees at Genex. Some of the items they were still using for storage of data dated
back to the 1940’s. As a rule it is difficult for people to easily accept change yet change
was needed. Devlin had only just recently been appointed to his position and Sandy was
the expert in the matter. Sandy was aware of the operations at competitors and knew what
was needed in order for Genex to stay in the game; he was not steeped in tradition or old
ways.

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3. What is your recommendation for a strategy to successfully implement enterprise wide
systems (such as SAP) at Genex?
RESPONSE:
The first order of business would be to determine what hardware and software each
divisional IT was using and how it was meeting the needs of their specific
department. Once that was assed then a strategy should be laid out with certain
standards and integration of those different systems. Next would be to ensure that
SAP meets the requirements of each divisional IT department. At this point the
department heads can meet and determine if there a need for the old system or if can
be modernized to the newer version that will fit into SAP. Along with that it is also
necessary to select a methodology where all the old data can be imported into the
new SAP system; finding the fastest, most efficient way to do so.