New enterprise tools and technologies: what’s in it for me?

Michael Kuhbock, Chairman Emeritus and founder of the Integration Consortium asks: can technology deliver enterprise nirvana, and what are the major problems faced by an organization trying to reach a state of harmony around SOA, IT-business alignment and enterprise 2.0?

I am usually inclined to be a contrarian to the vendor marketing hype and put my musings in a business perspective that directly questions (and sometimes answers) ‘What’s in it for me?’ To best answer this question, let’s take a look at some of the basic issues from a business perspective for these three technical areas of interest.

First up is service-oriented architecture (SOA), and the first question to ask, from a business perspective at least, is ‘who cares’? The IT community has yet to come to a consensus on defining SOA, the vendors continue to run amok building tools, case studies and whitepapers that are way ahead of the technology and architectural users in the market, and no one has even come close to building out a quantifiable return on investment for the business. Thus why would business ever start to care about another vendor-driven, hype-laden IT acronym – which of course is another acronym in a long series of IT alphabet soup delivered over the past few decades? SOA can be a very disruptive business force if the IT industry manages it properly; it’s a corporate philosophy, architecture and accompanying tool set that would enable the capacity for change within a company – but not until the SOA chaos is managed and the vending subjugated. SOA brings the potential for real tangible and sustainable value to companies through basic reuse and agility. Business will be the real winner from SOA, but this realization will only occur if SOA is delivered holistically enterprise-wide and is philosophically adopted by the corporate executives of an organization.

IT and business alignment issues usually referenced in presentations and writings focus on how IT has to align with business, otherwise the CIO and technology will be relegated to a subordinate role within the enterprise. Guess what, IT is already seen as maintenance, not strategic and this is one of the real issues that must be addressed. Rather than talking, writing and blogging about the symptoms, why not put some focus on the root problem (or problems): culture and communication. This way we can start working our way towards solutions and paths to alignment enlightenment.

If we take a hard look at the communication and cultural styles of both IT and business, we can start to see why some of the alignment disconnects exist in corporations today.
What IT and business alignment issues today are not include; intellectual challenges, business goals and personal mandates. Some of these issues might on occasion rear their ugly heads as was once prevalent in the past, but is not really the main barrier to alignment. IT clearly understands that they need to deliver value to the business and provide solutions in a cost and time effective manner, otherwise they will be out of a job. Business understands that much of the organizational infrastructure is dependent upon a healthy IT platform and systems, that IT innovation can facilitate a competitive advantage for them in today’s marketplace.

This was recently drilled home to business in the advent of the third wave of technology, e-business. You were either leveraging the web or you lost customers and market share. The beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of IT vary dramatically from business, thus leading us to the communication impasse between the two groups. Some people can walk the talk of IT and business, they would be seen as bilingual in a sense, but can they really dance to the beat of the others drum? If this were the case we wouldn’t have a business and IT alignment issue, would we? IT is from Mars and business is from some other ‘world’, therefore once we address the culture and communication issues that exist between these unique groups of individuals we can begin to create a ‘we’ rather than an ‘us versus them’ environment within an organization.

Enterprise 2.0 is an evolving phenomena, the definition of Enterprise 2.0 is still a work in progress but at least there appears to be censuses about what it is and is not, Enterprise 2.0 is the use of freeform social software within companies as defined by Andrew McAfee, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School and in my opinion one of the thought leaders in this space. The challenges with Enterprise 2.0 are twofold, first is the acceptance and use by non-technology business people. Here the problem is in the adoption and use of the Web 2.0 tools by technology neophytes that would allow for the creation of any corporate value from a business collaboration standpoint. The second challenge is overcoming the managerial fear of unrestricted corporate communication both inside and outside the company firewall. Old school management philosophies and new era security methodologies can extinguish any free form collaboration value that Enterprise Web 2.0 can bring into an organization. Both these points can stall and stop any adoption of enterprise collaboration thus negating any value derived by a company.

Nirvana is a state where all of the corporate resources are fully leveraged, creatively, functionally and financially. With this in mind, we can understand why it is critically important for a company to have harmony and piece within their SOA, Enterprise 2.0 and Alignment worlds. SOA creates a technological platform and methodology to support an agile business, Alignment is the ability to cross cultural and communication barriers so that the enterprise is willing and able to listen to itself while Enterprise 2.0 is the platform that brings it all together inside and outside of the firewall.

As a stakeholder questioning what’s in it for me, I now see that a state of corporate nirvana is reached when a company can take data, create information and then turn that into knowledge to be used as a competitive advantage adding value for all stakeholders. A healthy and harmonious interdependency between SOA, IT and business alignment and Enterprise 2.0 will deliver the ultimate goal of every enterprise and every stakeholder with a vested interest in that enterprise. That is what’s in it for me!

About Michael Kuhbock
Michael Kuhbock founded the Integration Consortium in July 2001 after identifying a business priority that industry trends were communicated with reliability and dependability. With more than 22 years of business entrepreneurial experience, he provides strategic and solution planning consulting for clients ranging from high-tech startups to global organizations. He can be reached at mkuhbock@collabolanche.com.

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The Middle Eastern region faces similar technology challenges to those of North America and Europe. The plethora of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) vendors and suppliers with their “fast-to-market” slogans and methodologies are confusing and overwhelming at times. The region’s challenges are further amplified due to the lack of skilled SOA resources that have converted and supported SOA systems.

This amplification effect is due to the urgency major technology vendors instill into executive managers. The uneasy feeling haunting the CEO or CFO about opportunity loss due to not implementing or embarking on an SOA project will force them to act. But are they taking the right decisions? Are they simply jumping into another project that doesn’t have clear objectives and alignment to business needs?

As vendors continue to battle out SOA platform dominance and fuel the SOA hype cycle through their marketing machines, executives within organizations in the Middle East should get back to basics and focus on getting a deep understanding of their business strategies, business processes, and following a structured approach to SOA driven from the business and not technology.

A few reputable organizations in the Middle Eastern region have taken the proper approach towards SOA. Executive management in those organizations clearly understood the requirements and investment required in building a robust SOA platform. Those executives are also in touch with reality realizing that SOA is about a cultural and a mindset change. They realize that changes will happen over time and not over night. They have also instilled change management programs across all layers of the organization starting with how senior managers think down to how support staff must operate to effectively support an SOA based enterprise.

About Fadi Hindi
Fadi Hindi is the Head of Strategic IT Planning & Enterprise Architecture at Dubai Customs. He is the founder of the Business Value Realization committee on the Integration Consortium and is the Middle-East Vice-Chair. He was the recipient of the SOA vision award in 2006 from CPI in recognition of his efforts in converting progressive SOA platforms.