business competitive pressures Archives - Innovate. Integrate. Transform. Run.

Will Next Generation IT Finally Transform Business
Will Next Generation IT Finally Transform Business

Will Next Generation IT Finally Transform Business

By Bill Wood|April 18th, 2011|

New IT Value Propositions – Moving from Operations to Customers and Innovation Throughout everything I do as a consultant, I try to categorize my activities into the three key areas of business: operations, customers, and innovation. Even though I have been working primarily in the supply chain areas of SAP since 1994 (SD – Sales and Distribution, MM – Materials Management, and PP – Production Planning), I have been focusing more on the key value areas of customers and innovation. I focus on cu [...]

Successful SAP Project Team Composition – Technicians or Experts?
Successful SAP Project Team Composition – Technicians or Experts?

Successful SAP Project Team Composition – Technicians or Experts?

By Bill Wood|September 27th, 2010|

Continuing on the theme from a previous post about getting SAP expertise, do you need SAP Technicians or Experts? I want to take some time to review an academic study about gaining SAP ROI and reducing your SAP TCO. The study points out the type of SAP project team expertise to gain ROI and competitive advantage from your ERP project. If you want real return, real results, and real benefits, then you need real skill (see e.g. Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2 [...]

Leading Change (and Change Management)
Leading Change (and Change Management)

Leading Change (and Change Management)

By MMyatt|May 17th, 2010|

“Leading Change” is clearly more difficult than realizing that change is needed. If you want to validate the prior statement reflect back on all of the “change agents” that have crossed your path over the years, ask yourself the following question: "How many of them have truly succeeded?" While we’ve heard a lot about change of late as it relates to our current political landscape, the power of real change is trivialized when it becomes little more than a political sound-bite. Whether in busine [...]

Outsourcing Your SAP Application Support
Outsourcing Your SAP Application Support

Outsourcing Your SAP Application Support

By Bill Wood|March 20th, 2010|

I believe it was Peter Drucker who opined about outsourcing and then wrote a book on the subject. The original premise was that low-level administrative functions that were not a key or core focus of the business (such as mail rooms) could be outsourced. Fast forward several years, and business has learned that virtually all non-value add functions can be outsourced. IT infrastructure was value add as long as something new or better could be developed to provide cost savings, efficienc [...]

Business and IT Alignment – Integrating Technology and IT Spend with Business
Business and IT Alignment – Integrating Technology and IT Spend with Business

Business and IT Alignment – Integrating Technology and IT Spend with Business

By Bill Wood|February 5th, 2010|

Aligning technology to business requirements is based on a few underlying assumptions that are often lacking from SAP projects. Those assumptions are 1) the business actually knows what their requirements are, 2) the project scope includes those requirements, 3) the right management and internal employees are committed and engaged, and 4) the system integrator you select has consultants with the required experience. Often, I see businesses fail to look beyond operational excellence areas of the [...]

Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation
Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation

Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation

By Bill Wood|December 2nd, 2009|

What are the Apple Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs focused Apple innovation on competitive pressures and value propositions. He relentlessly focused organizational energy on customer-centered innovation and customer experience. In a nutshell, his innovation secret (if it can be called that) was the relentless pursuit of improving customer experience. As early as 2002, Steve Jobs told the world about his competitive strategy. During his statement, you can tell he was carefully evalu [...]