Business Strategy Archives - Page 3 of 10 - Innovate. Integrate. Transform. Run.

SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment
SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment

SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment

By Bill Wood|September 6th, 2011|

In the new global business age, organizations need to leverage technology organization expertise for business benefit more than ever. Too often, technology organizations focus on technology for the sake of technology, rather than for how it might improve products and services or how it might create more customer focus. In today’s competitive global economy, filled with international economic instability, no part of the enterprise can afford to move very far from what pays the bills. If your SAP [...]

Integrating Business Stakeholders as Part of SAP IT Convergence
Integrating Business Stakeholders as Part of SAP IT Convergence

Integrating Business Stakeholders as Part of SAP IT Convergence

By Bill Wood|August 29th, 2011|

A while back, I had a conversation with an IT executive from one of America’s largest companies. I was interested in his perspective as a hard-working senior level IT insider. We started discussing the role of IT and business as well as the future of business and technology. In the process, I relayed my passion for how IT needs to integrate with the business and how the future was going to change significantly (see e.g. What is the Proper Relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO?). From that disc [...]

SAP IT Convergence is About Business Focused Integration
SAP IT Convergence is About Business Focused Integration

SAP IT Convergence is About Business Focused Integration

By Bill Wood|August 15th, 2011|

Enterprise SAP IT organizations pose a problem as they are focused on SAP and IT. They lose sight of their purpose, which is to promote the broader objectives of the enterprise. An SAP-centered IT organization's whole existence is about ensuring business benefit, focusing on enterprise goals, strategies, and objectives. Somewhere between the SAP sales cycle and the SAP go-live, the concept of business benefit gets lost and is never found again. By the time you go live with the SAP application, [...]

Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence
Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence

Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence

By Bill Wood|July 11th, 2011|

This post is based on information from my ASUG presentation in Atlanta: Beyond Technology Alignment – Building a Center of Excellence (http://bit.ly/jJefxP). ------------------------- At the intersection of business and IT, you have convergence. At the place of convergence is where the Center of Excellence exists. ------------------------- One of the key SAP project success factors is to use a steering committee made up of key business stakeholders. They can meet once a week or once a month, bu [...]

Create SAP Convergence Instead of Business to IT Alignment
Create SAP Convergence Instead of Business to IT Alignment

Create SAP Convergence Instead of Business to IT Alignment

By Bill Wood|April 4th, 2011|

This is part of an ongoing exploration of creating an SAP or Technology "Center of Excellence" within your enterprise. For the background and key insights on this approach, see the Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence . ------------------------------ The real future of technology is for IT to integrate with business, or in other words, to converge business and technology. The idea of aligning with business is too weak to define what IT and SAP must do within the enterpris [...]

Using Your SAP Steering Committee for Business Transformation
Using Your SAP Steering Committee for Business Transformation

Using Your SAP Steering Committee for Business Transformation

By Bill Wood|March 14th, 2011|

How Long-Term SAP Steering Committee Integration Changes the Enterprise One of the biggest benefits of an SAP implementation is the business transformation it can bring. At first, the changes and challenges are uncomfortable, even downright painful. However, in the mid- to long-term, SAP brings about a business culture transformation. When ongoing steering committee involvement enables that transformation, business to IT convergence occurs. Over time, this convergence of business and technology [...]