The first of a series of workshops delivered jointly with Newcastle University Business School

1. Competing with IT
- breaking through to enable
business innovation
Colin Ashurst
Alison Freer
15th March 2013

2. Creating value for stakeholders
by exploiting ongoing
innovation in IS / IT

6. Connecting the first PC to the internet
19..?

7. 7

8. 8

9. 9

10. 10

11. 11

12. 12

13. 13

16. Where next?
What opportunities will current
innovations in IS/IT provide
organisations?

17. The problem… high failure rate
Huge spend on IT
– “The UK public sector alone has spent an estimated £12.4 billion
on software in the last year and the overall UK spend on IT is
projected to be a monumental £22.6 billion,”
High failure rate of IT projects
– “We looked at a range of studies showing that only around
16per cent of IT projects can be considered truly successful.”
– “Billions of pounds are wasted every year on new IT systems”…..
British Computer Society report The Challenges of Complex IT Projects – 22 April 2004
Its not just the public sector!

18. The major gains come from
“doing the right things.”

19. IT & Change Portfolio
Strategic Exploratory
Transformational critical to may be important
change / doing achieving strategic in achieving future
new things
objectives success
Improving the
critical to existing valuable but
current
business business operations not critical to
success
Core Operations Support
Based on McFarlan 1981

20. Driving forces
STRATEGIC EXPLORATORY
Perceived market Innovative business idea
requirements
New technology
Competitive pressures opportunity
Achieve Create change
business changes
Improved performance of
existing activities (effectiveness) Cost reduction and
efficiency improvements
Integration/rationalisation to through automation
speed up business processes
General Legislation
Industry Legislation
CORE OPERATIONS SUPPORT
20

21. Setting Priorities
Strategic Exploratory
K
B
C
G
D L
I M
H E
A
J F
Core Operations Support
Size of circle represents use of resources on applications A - M.
Diagram could show:
• Money or people
• Development or Maintenance or both
• Current system, work in progress (ie a current project) or possible future
project

22. Innovation Debate
• What are the
challenges to
successful innovation
in your organisation?
• Examples of good
practice?

23. Case Studies

24. How do we maximise our R&D Investment?
• Global business
• Multiple suppliers with expertise
• High competition
• Time critical

25. How do we maximise our R&D expertise?
• Entrepreneurial leader
• Innovation Days
• Won over hearts & minds
• ‘Open Innovation’ campaign with suppliers = 90 new
ideas

26. How do we turn data into Information?
• NHS organisation
• 115 days to transfer patient activity data into
management reports
• Slow, cumbersome planning

27. How do we invoice accurately?
• Global IT services business – 90,000+ staff
• Push to maximise cost efficiency
• Multiple teams, locations and time-zones

28. How do we invoice accurately?
• Used ‘Ideation’ as “21st Century Suggestion Scheme”
• 3000 staff contributed to a 6 week Ideation event
• Ideas adopted yielded $64M increase in cash-flow

29. eLearning case study
The university has a core eLearning system Action:
used by 90% of its 20,000 students. It is Use the IT & Change
reliable and effective. However it looks dated portfolio to assess the
and does not provide Web 2.0 features. current situation and
A professor in Computer Science has develop options for action
developed a new eLearning system. Usage is
gradually growing in other departments. It
looks up to date and it has some clear
functional advantages over the core
university system. The system is hosted on a
server under the professors desk. It is
becoming unreliable and no one other than
the professor can provide support.

30. Successful Innovation Engages the Crowd

31. Successful Innovation Requires a Toolkit

32. Successful Innovation is Enabled by IT
• IT & Business strategies
aligned
• Open Innovation
Platforms
• Scope for exploration &
experimentation

33. Successful Innovation has Clear Sponsorship
• Idea Portfolio Manager
• Global Head of Collective
Intelligence
• Chief Growth Officer
• Chief Innovation Officer
• Chief Inspiration Officer
• Chief Imagination Officer
• Chief Detonator
• Chief Lizard Wrangler

34. Successful Innovation Requires Diversity
• Demographics
• Personalities
• Experience
• Cultures
• Sectors
• Life

35. Successful Innovation Requires IT Leadership
• Envisioning Future Trends
• Experimentation
• Engaging with users
• Embedded in strategy
• Empowered IT Teams

36. Investment justification
STRATEGIC EXPLORATORY
Enable the R & D project to
achievement of explore potential
business objectives value and cost
via explicit - fund from R & D
Critical budget
Success
$ Factors $ Risk money.
Disadvantage / Risk
Net cost
if it is not done
reduction through
(Critical Failure Factors)
& / or quantified
$
quantified savings
$CORE OPERATIONS
performance
improvement
SUPPORT
$extent to which benefits can be justified financially

37. Thank you, questions or comments?
• colin.ashurst@ncl.ac.uk
• alison.freer@leadtransform.co

38. The benefits ‘toolkit’ – linking theory and
practice

39. Bridging the knowing-doing gap: building the business
transformation capability
Shared language / mindset:
focus on benefits &
transformation
IT Strategic
Management
Transformation Evolving
Learning Knowledge
toolkit Transformation
by doing into action
Capability
Leadership &
Development
Individuals & teams using the
toolkit to contribute to benefits
realization

41. How would you approach a xxxx1 project….
• Consider:
– Lifecycle: stages / deliverables / milestones
– Role of sponsor
– Style / skills of project manager
– Resourcing
– Approach to budget / timescales
– Attitude to risk
xxxx1 – can be Strategic /
– Use of package software Exploratory/ Core Operations /
– ‘Agility’ Support

42. Your project…
• Where does it fit on the investment portfolio?
• What are the implications for how you sell the project?
• What are the implications of the portfolio for the
management of the project?
• How appropriate is the current management framework for
the project?

43. What examples of good practice for portfolio
management can you share?
How has the practice contributed to
improved realization of benefits from your
portfolio?

44. How can you use the portfolio to build
engagement with colleagues and build
the capability of your organization to
realize benefits from IT?

45. Using the portfolio….
• Setting priorities
• Strategic alignment
• Investment justification
• Project strategy
• Governance
• Resourcing / sourcing
Common language