THAILAND--Accenture has completed a study of C-level executives that suggests businesses are shifting away from pure IT goals to an approach where IT is more integrated with business goals.
Speaking to journalists in Bangkok, Adrian Marcellus, executive partner of Accenture and Asean lead for enterprise systems, said its previous surveys show that C-level executives see IT as a tool to optimize business processes, and improve decision making through process optimization and analytics.
A key change between surveys done in 2002 and 2006 was that where IT used to be a one-off project, in 2006 it had become more of a continuous journey.
Integration is also a major focus. Rather than implementing IT systems for a particular department or business unit, C-level executives today believe that to get the best benefit out of a system, they need to implement the system not just across an organization or a region, but across the globe.
Integration also means linking outside of the organization. The survey showed that the number of organizations linking to suppliers rose from 17 percent to 24 percent and many now link directly to their customers.
Configuration and customization of enterprise software has grown from 45 to 55 percent. This does not mean changing the source code, rather it means tailoring the software to meet the needs of the organization.
And while ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems in the past were used to run the business, today, more and more executives at all levels are tapping on operational data with business intelligence tools in order to make better decisions.
From these surveys, Accenture has identified a number of key characteristics of what it calls "high-performing organizations" which excel in their industry. Strategically, many choose to differentiate themselves by providing a superior level of customer service or a better product. But, it is how they choose to tailor their IT systems which are different.
High-performing organizations determine what they want to compete in, and tailor it to bring about a competitive advantage. For everything else, these companies will standardize on open platforms as much as possible, according to Accenture.
They will also take advantage of industry specific solutions rather than generic packages, and are more than twice as likely to take advantage of new technologies such as SOA (service oriented architecture) or the Web.
High-performing organizations also will have clear metrics on how they will measure success.
Asked how he viewed the emergence of applications such as Salesforce.com, Dynamics Live and Siebel on Demand, and how they will change the marketplace, Marcellus agreed that it was an agile product that can be implemented in as little as six weeks.
He added that organizations with very standardized processes might want to take advantage of it. However, for more customized applications, the question is whether the organization will want to share customized business processes with their provider.
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