Shikarishambu on Software & Related Services

Pretty much all companies these days claim that IT is **very** important to their business, offers competitive advantage, blah-blah-blah… All these companies and the IT vendors were very upset with Nicholas Carr for suggesting that “IT doesn’t matter.” However, it has been my experience that there are broadly two kinds of companies – ones that are “IT Enabled” and ones that are “IT Driven.” To put it simply, being “IT Enabled” is good and being “IT Driven” is not so good (may even be bad).

So, what do I mean by “IT Enabled”? An “IT Enabled” organization is one where the business strategy and business processes are defined, communicated and adopted without the involvement of IT systems. The IT systems enable the employees to complete the business process faster, better and even improve the business processes. This is an organization where every group, department, cost/profit center knows its role in the business process, communicates and co-ordinates with other groups without relying on IT systems. This is an organization that has a clear understanding of where it is going, how IT can help it and engages IT early and often. The IT organizations in these companies do have an opportunity to make a difference to the company’s bottomline and/or topline and often they do. You may have interacted with some of the companies – where you ask customer support for something simple but special and they know how to complete the request. No, the IT system may not have been built for it but they know the business process. They know who to call to get the answer.

An “IT Driven” organization, on the other is one where the business process is defined as part of the systems/ application development and it is communicated as part of the systems rollout. Needless to say, in these organizations IT plays a very reactive role and the employees do not have a full understanding of the entire process. The only documentation of the business process is possibly in one of the documents created to build the application. These organizations tend to be very reactive, often silo-ed and rely on IT systems/ applications to “communicate” across groups, departments etc…The IT organizations in the companies are constantly in a reactive mode with no/limited insight into the company strategy and strategic initiatives.

Guess what, there are a whole lot more of “IT Driven” organizations than “IT Enabled” organizations. Having the capability is not enough. What you do with the capability is what will differentiate you from the rest.

I have long argued that Apple’s “I am a Mac” ads cause confusion in the minds of viewers. Almost all viewers think Apple is taking a dig at Microsoft. Yes, they are. Not, they are not taking a dig at just Microsoft. User experience is not derived from just the operating system but also from the hardware and the software that the user tends to use the most. The Mac advertisements are about user experience.

An integrated platform like Mac where the hardware, the operating system and most of the software comes from a single company (in this case, Apple) allows Apple to offer a “better” experience. (Note: I have not used a Mac in the last decade so I really cannot say whether it offers a better experience). The PC, the Windows Operating System and the applications that run on it are discrete pieces that are created by different parties, assembled by different and experienced by a single user at a given time. All these companies contribute to the user experience – the good, the bad and the ugly.

I was quite surprised to hear of the “Iam a PC” campaign from Microsoft for many reasons. For one, it looks and feels like a knee jerk reaction from Redmond. Then, I don’t think Microsoft has ever had a memorable product name leave along an ad. campaign. So, why waste money. Last but not the least, when did PC mean Microsoft. Yes, Windows run on about 80-90% of the PCs but there are PCs running Linux, Unix and <<you name it>> operating systems. Does Microsoft make PCs? Last time I checked… No. So, shouldn’t Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Asus along with Microsoft do the “Iam a PC” campaign. I guess they are not as stupid as Redmond. A fool and his money are soon parted. I guess that is true for corporations, too.