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www.idc.com
Raymond Boggs
May 2007
P.508.872.8200
INTRODUCTION
These are challenging times for firms that have grown to be larger than small
businesses but aren't yet large or Fortune 1000 businesses. Getting access to the
Global Headquarters: 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA
right information has never been more important for CIOs who craft and implement IT
strategy or for senior operating executives who provide strategic direction and are
responsible for a firm's financial success. But with data more readily available than
ever, the key questions are: What do we need to know? How do we go about getting
the information we need?
Of course, internal assessments are only the first step in identifying information
needs. Customer, supplier, and government constituencies are demanding higher
levels of performance. Given the sharper competitive environment domestically and
internationally, the external need for improving information access can be even more
compelling than pressures from within a company.
This white paper presents IDC's framework for implementing operational excellence
(op ex) and helps the reader move toward an effective op ex implementation while
avoiding potential pitfalls. Three critical steps — internal assessment, competitive
benchmarking, and resource prioritization and acquisition — are described to support
development and refinement of successful op ex practices.
CHANGING MIDMARKET PERCEPTIONS OF
TECHNOLOGY
In many respects, the most successful midmarket firms are actually somewhat
dissatisfied with aspects of basic business operations, especially their ability to
identify and obtain critical information. They know that they can do better and that
they must do better if they hope to thrive in the future. These firms regularly look at
technology to help improve performance by delivering the information necessary to
refine effective strategies and identify where and how performance can be improved.
IDC has found that certain technology attitudes and philosophies are associated with
competitive success among midmarket firms. While investments in IT resources can
often be linked to effective operational results, the attitudes rather than the dollar
amount spent set the stage for success. These attitudes can be directly tied to
information management practices that work, which, of course, raises the next
question: How can companies best nurture the attitudes that are associated with IT
and information management effectiveness?
Medium-sized businesses are very comfortable with the idea that advanced
technology can serve as a competitive tool, but faster-growing firms are even more
likely to embrace this view, as Table 1 indicates. The customers and suppliers that
midmarket firms work with have become catalysts for this kind of thinking. Not only
are they measuring your performance against firms similar to your own — your most
immediate and obvious competitors — but they are assessing your performance
against the best practices delivered by major global corporations.
This new competitive perspective, where you are evaluated against the performance
of firms that may not even be in your line of business, is a 21st century phenomenon.
The benchmarks established in one sector soon become the standard for success in
others. This means that it may no longer be sufficient to outperform your immediate
competitors if you are still below what have become accepted standards in other
industries. What seems to work today may not be effective against the new
competitors you will face tomorrow.
It's natural and inevitable for technology spending to be considered a cost that needs
minimizing. But among more successful and forward-looking firms, technology is typically
viewed as a resource to be nurtured and invested in to improve efficiency. As Table 2
indicates, firms that have been growing more rapidly tend to have higher levels of
agreement with the "technology as investment" attitude than midmarket firms in general.
T ABLE 2
The key, of course, is to frame the analysis not by near-term savings (though this is
appealing) but by long-term growth implications. While some might see op ex
investments as a way to manage and thereby reduce costs, this outlook misses the
real upside for major revenue growth associated with enhanced employee access to
critical information. But of course, such enhancements are associated with direct and
indirect costs.
In effect, you must balance the need to be more efficient internally with the need to
grow the business profitably. Too much emphasis on either side of the scale can
create problems. IDC has found that there is an instructive change in investment
dynamics within companies as they grow: Revenue expansion is more typically the
focus of smaller firms, while midsize firms are also interested in revenue growth and
internal efficiency. The larger a company becomes, the greater the opportunity for
operational improvement by putting in place the right practices and policies and by
getting the right information to the right people.
There is growing use of local area networks (LANs) in midmarket firms, with an
increasing number of servers and network applications as well as more storage
capabilities and remote access for those outside the office, all driven by changing
business requirements. IT environments are becoming more complex, but in the end,
the LAN has emerged as the corporate central nervous system, facilitating
communications, supporting business activities, and serving as the shared
institutional information source in midsize firms.
In contrast, use of server-based LANs is more the rule than the exception in midsize
firms, with roughly four out of five firms making use of servers from all form factors,
with rackmounted systems the most popular. (Desktops are most widely cited by
small businesses.) The diverse nature of midmarket servers is not the challenge.
Rather, the number of servers is the issue: Midsize firms own an average of 12.3
servers, and 20-plus servers is the norm as firms grow beyond 250 employees. It's no
surprise that managing IT infrastructure and the challenge of storage and data
retrieval are much more serious issues for IT management in midsize companies than
for their colleagues in smaller firms.
FIGURE 1
Under 5 29.2
5–9 36.7
10–19 52.8
20–49 64.8
50–99 75.7
100–249 78.2
250–499 82.0
500–999 79.3
0 20 40 60 80 100
(%)
n = 1,032
Source: IDC, 2007
As IT environments grow more complex, the need for support staff to keep things up
and running becomes ever more compelling. Figure 2 shows the share of SMBs with
full-time IT staff in place by company size. Most smaller firms with under 50
employees don't have dedicated IT staff, but the majority of firms with 50 or more
employees do. The share increases rapidly to 75% of firms with 100–249 employees
and over 90% of firms approaching 1,000 employees. Of course, the number of IT
staffers within those firms also grows with company size, with two or three in small
businesses. Among midsize firms, though, IT department size grows dramatically,
roughly doubling with each size category, from 7 in firms with 100–249, to 13 in firms
with 250–499, to 29 in firms with 500–999 employees.
FIGURE 2
Under 10 4.2
10–19 11.2
20–49 28.8
50–99 55.5
100–249 74.8
250–499 84.6
500–999 93.3
0 20 40 60 80 100
(%)
n = 1,032
Source: IDC, 2007
Paradoxically, the higher level of IT support does not necessarily translate into more
comprehensive coverage. Even while IT staffs expand significantly with the size of
midmarket firms, the average number of PC seats supported per IT employee
remains fairly constant at 20–40. This means that the availability of IT staff to work on
major project development or to establish a foundation for long-term planning is
This may seem to be the easiest step to take, because it is completely internal to your
company, but it can pose a real challenge because of its sensitive political nature.
The key is to assemble important internal constituencies to identify the critical
information needs that will be essential in taking the company to the next level of
development. While it's tempting to draw from familiar faces in operating departments
with whom you've worked closely in the past, your challenge is to solicit help from
people who are the most knowledgeable and who have the greatest influence in their
respective areas.
The "diagnostic" process can be difficult and uncomfortable for some, so a more
general survey of staff to gather anonymous concerns and forward-looking
suggestions can be an effective starting point. In the tradition of brainstorming ideas,
try to be as inclusive as possible and avoid trying to come up with solutions at this
point. The objective is to look with "fresh eyes" at your current ability to meet the
information needs of key groups, not just repeat the conclusions of past assessments.
This is a natural extension of step one, especially if some of the internal opinions
shared came from staff who had worked for competitors, customers, or suppliers. In
essence, you want to gather insight on what other companies are doing that can be
helpful in your own evaluation of current and anticipated information needs, both
internal and external.
2. The "best practices" companies in your industry (or related industries) set the
standard for excellence in the eyes of customers, suppliers, or employees. They
are less obvious and not necessarily even competitors, but they do establish
performance expectations among your customers and prospects. Some may be
major multinationals that have resources you could not hope to match — yet you
will be held to performance standards that they establish. If your local bank can
provide account status information online or through a quick phone inquiry, your
customers (or your own sales staff) may wonder why you can't do the same.
Benchmarking should be done with constructive goals in mind rather than to build a
sense of inadequacy (avoid the "I told you so" temptations). List the critical
competitive strengths of the most admired companies in your industry, but also list
their weaknesses or those areas where your company offers better performance. This
balancing-of-the-ledger exercise is especially important at the committee level
because not every department in your firm may be aware of the very real strengths
and high performance delivered by other members of the team. Special strengths can
be in areas such as customer relationship building, flexibility, personalization, and so
forth. The goal is to see where improvements could be made while also identifying
(and underscoring) key competitive advantages that can be emphasized and
nurtured.
This is the therapeutic stage that builds on the understanding of needs from the first
two steps to help identify the most effective approach to operational excellence. With
information goals in mind, companies should reach a natural consensus regarding the
source and nature of critical information needed for success. From this point, an
advisory committee assembled for this purpose can identify who can benefit from
what types of information. Because this is likely to be an area for considerable
debate, it's helpful to associate users with a "relative need" metric to objectively
assess who would be/should be the primary recipient of different information on a
five-point scale of importance based on job needs. This approach will identify the
"nice to have, but not essential" users who can contribute to, but who shouldn't
sidetrack, the process.
But of course the approach is actually revolutionary, designed not only to provide a
fresh look at meeting organizational information needs but also to assess whether
perceived needs are really appropriate. Just because information has moved in your
company in a certain way to certain people does not mean the practice needs to
continue. As with any move to automating processes, the realization that something
does not need to be done can be as big a source of cost savings as the
implementation of an activity done with greater efficiency. IDC believes there is
something of a "Trojan horse opportunity" for both business and IT management to
begin with an incremental enhancement view of current practices but, if appropriate,
assemble the justification and resources for major change in processes.
Of course, we have been outlining the most comprehensive and, potentially, the
most beneficial approaches toward operational excellence. Smaller-scale or less
ambitious efforts can work on a departmental basis, but the ability to leverage
changes in IT infrastructure will be lost. For this reason, the challenge associated
with senior management support can serve as the last word. The legitimacy provided
by management participation in the process is invaluable in generating support for
the planning process and the successful implementation of new solutions. It can be
the key to success on one hand, and the recipe for disappointment if absent.
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