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This series takes a fresh approach: it matches the challenges
encountered when managing the
design and development of large corporate IT projects with a
thorough analysis of relevant, historical case study. It mines
lessons learned in Britain during the Second World
War and applies them to the twin challenges of information
management and business process streamlining within the
modern business world. Specifically, the book addresses the
challenges of modeling the collective knowledge
and business processes within any modern business and
developing a strategy for maximizing competitive advantage
through a modern infrastructure. The use
of an engrossing and detailed historical case study reinforces the
book’s business and IT recommendations.
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Churchill’s
Adaptive Enterprise
The
Battle of Britain was probably one of the most significant victories of World
War II, as it was unexpected and against the run of play. What was achieved in creating an adaptive
enterprise in the short time frame available was truly remarkable in its
scope, and was ultimately one of the greatest project successes of the 20th
century. Within this context the book solves these four problems:
- Organizations
lack the ability to successfully sense and respond to events, discern
“signal from noise,” and make use of all the potential
information, knowledge, and intelligence stored around them. They
create, collect, and handle huge volumes of data in large warehouses,
but are challenged in making use of the most critical information, and
in discerning useful intelligence from the glut of information. They are
challenged in extracting, aggregating, and presenting the information to
the right decision-maker(s) in a relevant timeframe, so it can be
actively used as a potent weapon.
- There
is a huge disparity in the way organizations implement and leverage
emerging technologies across the enterprise. For example, some business
units fail to buy into an enterprise project. They proceed with their
own project with similar technologies, and fail to integrate at an
enterprise level. As a result, the enterprise project never achieves the
envisioned benefits, the organization presents mixed messages to
customers, and the output just further propagates the confusion.
- Organizations
view emerging technology projects as “technology-only”
projects, where the focus is on the implementation of the technology.
These projects are not about technology, but about business and
communities. Organizations fail to exploit the new technology available,
and end up not achieving the desired return on investment because they
don’t focus on payback or work within a business-case
framework.
- Organizations
struggle to realign business processes and the organizational structure
for the emerging technology project. They fall short in matching the
same investment and effort that is usually apportioned to the
technology. For example, they fail to establish the communities that can
collaborate and create knowledge for their organizations.
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