Trafford Publishing: The Executive's Bridge to Success

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The Executive's Bridge to Success

by William Allen Anderson

151 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-2783; ISBN 1-4120-4975-X; US$49.95, C$62.00, EUR40.30, £27.93

You will increase revenue with high ROI through the design of your business processes. Learn how six principles can bridge you from stagnation to significant competitive advantage.

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About the Book About the Author Excerpts Catalogue Information

About the Book

Six new information systems development principles are presented and described so that any enterprise can apply them. By deploying these principles, a company can realize significant gain in ROI and in revenue. In addition to revenue increase, the cost of business will be reduced. The keys are to properly identify the big payoff systems projects, swiftly implement them, and enjoy a more cohesive business process.
Since the late 1950s when business started using the mainframe computers to enhance business processing, certain principles were framed that have persisted to current practices. While technology leaders have been quick to usher in new tools, skills, and methods, the basic principles have not been questioned.
For example, the systems analyst interviews of the VP of Production to understand a request for a new system in inventory control. The analyst asks questions, takes notes, and defines the requirements expressed. The VP claims a new system will save the company two shift foremen and three clerical positions. The analyst verifies this claim and it is accurate. Upon the analyst's feasibility analysis and specifications, the project is approved for development.
A design is documented and approved, and the system is developed and implemented. The return expected was to save $250,000 per year at a cost of just $500,000 for system development. The payback-time is therefore approximately two years. Follow up shows the claims were correct, and everyone is satisfied with the new system.
Is this scenario typical of how systems are developed today? Yes, it is typical of the well-organized IT department.It is also based on the old set of principles used since the dawn of computerization. Many companies practice this way, and they are missing the mark in a most critical area of competitive opportunity. You will see how and why in this book.
A case study like this one and another regarding the new CEO coming on board illustrate what's wrong with present day practices. We are using outdated principles to lead today's dynamic enterprise, and it doesn't work.
You will see how an enterprise can maximize ROI and revenue instead of just improving them. The author has formulated the six new principles and fortifies then with seven critical tools that every company should use. The keys to success are yours in this book, nominally priced and generously shared with you.

About the Author

Following a successful career in Information Technology, William Allen Anderson now shares his keys to success at the executive level for the development of enterprise information systems. Mr. Anderson's forty-five years of Systems Analyst experience have paralleled thirty years as Chief Information officer and executive management, and have also paralleled twenty-five years of teaching for four universities, and occasional consulting engagements. This rich experience in many industries focused on business improvement through his analytical vision, creative thinking culminating in new principles that are significant departures from the old-school thinking regarding enterprise systems development.
Mr. Anderson has tested his new principles and they truly result in adding millions of dollars to the bottom line, rather than the typical systems designed to eliminate one or two positions. He stakes the claim that there are riches to be uncovered in all companies in places no one else has looked. This book reveals those ideas through six new principles and by accenting seven well-known tools and skills that play strong support roles in the development of best-systems with best-practice.

Excerpts

Central to today's successful corporation is the information fuel that fires the business process.

It's time to change the way we utilize IT development resources. Yes! There is a better way. New principles that will uncover opportunities for the leaders with vision to realize. It lies within the structure of business systems and processes.

Why do you develop and procure business information systems?

The over-arching theme of this material is for you to view systems development as a means of increasing profit.

Upon your buy-in to this goal, we want to somewhat rearrange "profit" to a more precise consideration. We really mean that we want to do two things:

1.Increase revenue

2.Increase ROI

By way of a summary of the introduction to his book, we would like to highlight the following:

The Six Major Profits are key principles for successful systems development.
The Seven Minor Profits support the Major Profits, and are necessary.
This material introduces a new way of thinking that emphasizes the financial impact of business information systems.
Financial impact is measured by ROI and revenue increase.

It is the objective of this book to offer the reader six principles and seven tools that will increase enterprise profitability through improved business processes. This will be accomplished through a revolutionary new plan for developing business information systems.

OUTCOMES

Coherent, productive business processes
The discovery of hidden opportunity within the organizational processes
Doing the right things and doing them right
Improved bottom line performance
A competitive edge
Systems developed with an (ROI=3)¹
Higher morale
Leadership continuity
Significant corporate cognitive gain

You have an opportunity to rekindle your imagination that has perhaps been dormant since early childhood.

Life is not easy in IT today, either. The CIO is continually faced with asking management for more technology funding. It never ends. He or she is second-guessed on every major move. Maintaining a reliable infrastructure of networks and servers is a challenge for the CIO and network managers even with the best of equipment. They sit on a huge capital outlay, and it just keeps getting bigger. The accountability and responsibility pressures are high. The systems must be up 100% of the time to support mission-critical information systems. How do you control employee use of the computer, virus attacks, spam, fraud, and up time?

Rather, this is about a paradigm for new theoretical thinking. It includes new thinking for systems analysis and design; system ownership vs. change-resistance; income vs. cost as system targets; new perspective of enterprise processes; and truly seeing the forest. These theories will become self-evident as you examine with us The Six Major Profits.

So, in this chapter, we recognize we may do some things right, but are we doing the right things?

All of the work of the "big picture view" that we call Major Profit 1 springs off of a common IT principle. The principle is well-known, but ignored. The principle is that every system in our universe is a sub-system of some larger system.

This is what I have discovered through forty-five years in systems analysis.

Costs seldom go down when business processes are automated.
Costs just as often go up when business processes are automated.
The assumption has always been that the enterprise would be more efficient with computerization.
Most information systems development projects are approved on scant cost/benefit analysis, and then usually for a two- to three-year payback.
The actual result of the enterprise usually lags the forecasted savings due to cost-cutting. However, it is a difficult statistic to determine as there is no tracking or accountability after the fact.

The System that cuts cost may save tens of thousands per year, but the system that will increase revenue may add millions to the bottom line.

The initial system development cost is treated as a capital investment from which we calculate the return or what we call the return on investment (ROI).

To summarize the fallacies, we believe that campaign launched to cut cost may be justified for the first 5% of budget, but beyond that amount they could reduce enterprise performance. Further, most cost-cutting is ill-conceived, and poorly executed.

There is hidden wealth from within companies these systems can mine. It comes from a focus on revenue-increases that management never considered related to systems development.

The system analyst must help the user just imagine and describe the perfect system for their need. Forget all the preconceived limitations.

The Web won't resolve the malfunctioning brick and mortar decrepitude. Further incoherence was obvious by what they planned to do with the web. Yes, it was to reduce cost, not to increase revenue.

Technology applied to an incorrectly engineered process might only be doing the wrong things more efficiently.

Therefore, if the enterprise were more finely tuned 3 years ago, it is now time to adjust to the current strategic plan to include a net-enhanced perspective.

There is a cacophony of myths prevalent today. Some organizations intend to follow the prevalent textbook description of cost/benefit analysis in systems development, and some make no pretense of practicing the textbook approach. It is the stance of this book that neither may be the correct approach toward maximizing the financial bottom line.

Myth: Not every project should be defined in financial terms.

The nature of information systems has changed standard protections once thought sacrosanct. Auditors had a checklist of audits for control over security in the 1960s and 1970s that no longer apply.

Elevate security by making your CEO the Chief Security Officer.

An interesting observation based on experience with other enterprises is that you may not really want to attempt the exercise. Unless you jump into the water with both feet you should not attempt the exercise at all.

Every information system development project is different. While we cannot tell you the procedure to follow, we can tell you the principles to apply.

This has been a fast ride through the steps, and the work of the Major Profits is now completed for the PI phase of the project.

What would the business world look like if the six Major Profits we in common use? Perhaps the best way to summarize this book is to describe the answer to that question. Go ahead now and dream, visualize, imagine, and then follow that vision.

Dare to dream again. Dreamers develop vision.
Dare to create new ways. Creativity inspires problem solving and success.
Dare to think. Your mind has more power than you will ever use or need.
Dare to be successful. Cross the executive bridge to six new principles.

Catalogue Information