l. mohan1 management imperatives to make it business-smart 1.a success story - why it worked? –...
TRANSCRIPT
L. Mohan 1
Management Imperatives To Make IT Business-Smart
1. A Success Story - Why it Worked? – Asian Paints vs. Nike
2. Why Companies Don’t Get IT
3. A Model for Managing IT - Cisco Case
4. The Cisco Inventory Wreck: How Did It Happen?
5. Lessons for Making IT Business-Smart
6. Build or Buy or Rent or Outsource
7. If Cement Can in Mexico, Anyone Can! – CEMEX Case
8. Summing Up
L. Mohan 2
A Big Splash In Wall Street in March 2001...
Nike Says Profit Woes Due To IT
Philip Knight, Nike’s Chairman and CEO, blamed the “complications arising from the impact of implementing our new demand-and-supply planning systems and processes” for the shortages of some products and excess amounts of others as well as late deliveries.
Result: Profits Fell Short of Estimate by 33%
I guess my immediate reaction is: This is what we get for $400 million?
Source: Computerworld, March 5, 2001
L. Mohan 3
Some Causes for the Nike Problem
BIG Global Supply-Chain Project
Suppliers in Indonesia, Malaysia, China…. A Real Challenge
High degree of Customization
i2’s Supply Chain application had to be linked with SAP’s ERP and Siebel’s CRM systems
Wide range of footwear products in a multitude of styles and sizes
Complexity in mapping the supply-chain software to the company’s internal business processes
L. Mohan 4
A Success Story: Asian Paints IT Funded Global Acquisitions
$20M investment in IT
Benefit: $80M operating cash flow generated over the past 3 years
Implemented SCM from i2 before ERP from SAP
Inventory Turns: 11.6 in 2002 vs. 6.5 in 1998
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---------- SUCCESS
--------- FAILURE
@ ASIAN PAINTS
FACTOR
@ NIKE
Restricted to India Number of locations Suppliers across the globe
Decided to install SCM software before ERP software
Top management insight Did not recognize the complexity of a global Supply Chain Project
Phased – First SCM, then ERP, last CRM
Implementation strategy Three packages simultaneously – Nike IT staff spread thin
Restructured in 1998, before SCM Project – only modest customization needed in the software
Organization issues Heavy customization of i2 software to fit Nike’s business processes – no pilot test due to aggressive time-table
i2 played a proactive role - suggested implementing smaller modules one at a time.
i2’s role i2 did not adhere to what it did usually – it adopted a big-bang rollout approach
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An Opportunity to be Seized. . .
- Computers used in Business for Nearly Five Decades
- Dazzling Progress in Technology
- Significant Investments in IT Infrastructure Hardware, Software and Peopleware
Focus on OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS has blurredthe potential of using IT for
MANAGING the Business
YET . . YET . .
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The Bottom Line
WHY NOT ???
The power of today's computing technology is not being used as it should in most enterprises.
- James Martin, The IS Manifesto
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A Hypothesis
Traditional focus on the "4 M's“ (Money, Machines, Markets & Men)
Hands-off approach to IT
HENCE:
IT is treated as a cost center No real understanding of the potential of
IT to help achieve business objectives
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Managerial Implications
CANNOT TREAT IT AS A COST CENTER TO BE RUN BY TECHNICAL PEOPLE
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP IS NEEDED TO ENSURE:
• IT is aligned with Corporate Strategy
• IT projects are not bogged down in Operational Systems that are required to run the business - must pay attention to critical Information Support Systems to manage the business
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Companies That just Don’t Get IT!
In the near future, some management guru will write a book about how executives in the 1990s spent too much money on IT because they were afraid to manage it properly. Unsure of what went on in the “black box”, they put their trust in technological experts to deliver business value from IT investment…
CEOs don’t seem to apply the same management scrutiny to their IT department as they do to the rest of the organization.
Source: Wall Street Journal, December 12, 1996
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Why IT is a “Black Box” to Top Management
… Unsure of what goes on within it and not particularly anxious to find out
… Do not know “the right questions to ask and the wrong answers”
… Cannot penetrate the “techno-speak” of the IT group
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Treat IT as a Traditional Business System- Does Not Require “T” Knowledge
Business Strategy & Planning
ProductDevelopment
Operations CustomerService
IT Strategy & Planning
IT Applications Development &Implementation
IT Infrastructure
Operations
UserSupport
Typical Business Functions
Typical IT Functions
IT should be managed like any business system to deliver value.
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IT Strategy & Planning
- Business strategy and priorities must guide IT investment decisions.
- IT Budget should channel funds toward critical areas – e.g., growth of market share, increased revenues and overall competitiveness.
- IT leaders should work from the same agenda as their business counterparts.
- IT leaders must understand the fundamentals of business – to make decisions based on real measures of business value, not politics or pet projects.
- They should have a seat at the table where business priorities are set.
- Business unit heads should be held accountable for the performance benefits promised by IT projects.
- In turn, they must have a seat at the table when IT strategies are developed.
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Cisco in 1993 - $500 M Company
IT ran traditional order-entry, manufacturing and financial systems - basically transaction processing systems
Software package from vendor; CISCO was biggest customer
IT viewed as a cost center Reported through the CFO Too internally oriented
ResultContribution of IT to the business was much less than its potential.
Current legacy systems could not scale to support Cisco’s growth nor were they flexible to meet management requirements
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Changes Made to the IT Function
1. IT reporting changed from Finance to “Customer Advocacy” department to enable IT to facilitate Cisco’s “Customer Focus” strategy.
2. IT budget pertaining to the functions were returned to the functions All IT application projects are client-funded
3. Central IT Steering Committee was disbanded All IT investment decisions on application projects were
pushed out to the line organization but executed by the central IT department
For example, if a sales manager has a goal to grow his sales 50% next year, it is his decision as to what resources he invests in it to accomplish his goal. Do I need more salespeople? Do I create more marketing programs? Or, do I invest in IT? All the money is in his P & L.
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Cisco in 1998: $8.5 B Company
IT department has about 1, 000 people (employees and non-employees)
Operating budget: $300 M (excludes telephone usage, PC acquisition cost and Engineering department’s IT expenses)
Central management of the “T” in IT.
User decides how much to spend on IT, but not which technology is purchased or used.
Implemented a $15 M Enterprise Resource Planning System to replace all legacy systems worldwide in an aggressive 9-month big bang effort (June ‘94 - February ‘95)
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Cisco’s Approach to IT
Philosophy Focus on reducing cycle time and improving customer
satisfaction in a cost-effective manner IT is integral to the business
IT’s Relationship with Clients
Our clients manage IT as one of the resources available to achieve business goals.
We jointly define with our clients the scope of IT projects. Clients are held accountable for attaining the business results with their IT investments. We are held accountable for implementing effective solutions as defined
Companies that achieve a high degree of business responsiveness and business integration usually have decentralized IT; they optimize for the business unit but sub-optimize for the overall enterprise. We have been able to walk that difficult line between centralization and decentralization and yet achieve a very high degree business ownership of IT decisions and investment.
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A Key Lesson - How to View IT Investment
In the information age, spending less is no longer the goal; getting benefits and maximizing cost effectiveness is the goal…
…We manage IT as an integral part of every function in the company. Manufacturing decides how much to invest in IT, and IT becomes part of the COGs (Cost of Goods). The same thing happens in R&D, sales, finance, marketing and distribution, human resources, etc. While all this seems pretty obvious, it’s amazing the number of companies that lump most of their IT into G&A (General & Administrative) expense, and then manage IT to minimize the cost as if it were a necessary evil.
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The Customer is THE Business- Pervades IT Department Too
I have 150,000 registered Customers hooked up - those are customers with a big “C” - compared to 15,000 Cisco employees. In contrast to most internally focused IT organization in many other companies, my mission does not primarily focus on providing services and systems to meet the needs of the employees of the business. In fact, I refer to my employee users as clients, and not as customers.
Customers that are using our systems directly express higher satisfaction with us, and enjoy a lower cost of doing business with us than those who do not use our systems. And, of course, we also lower our cost of doing business.
CIO spends 25% of his time meeting with customers to brief them on his IT mission, strategies, organization structure and applications.
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IT Application Development & Implementation
Top management have a significant role to play in the oversight of “big” IT projects – cannot abdicate this responsibility to the CIO
Example: Cisco’s ERP System
– Installed an ERP System to replace all legacy systems worldwide in an aggressive 9-month big-bang effort
– Cisco had NO CHOICE…The legacy systems could not scale to the explosive growth of Cisco in the early Nineties – the crash of the system in January 1994 shut the company for two days
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Key Steps taken by Cisco Management
– CEO made the project one of the company’s top 7 goals for the year and tracked its progress in executive staff meetings, company-wide meetings and board meetings
1. Oversight by Top Management
2. Project was Not An IT-only Initiative
– Hand-picked the best business people to work with IT personnel on the project
– Team of 100 members placed onto one of 5 tracks (process areas)
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Key Steps taken by Cisco Management
3. Implementation Responsibility at Two Levels– Executive Steering Committee composed of VPs of
Manufacturing and Customer Advocacy, CIO, Corporate Controller and Senior VPs of Vendors
– Project Management Office headed by business manager overseeing the 5 tracks, each of which had a business leader and an IT leader jointly overseeing the work of the team
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The “Cisco After” - $2.2 B Inventory Write-Off in Apr 2001
How could a posterchild of E-Business, with all the publicity about the brilliant integration of its systems -“ the company could close its books in 24 hours, any day of the year”- … Not stop building inventory worth billions of dollars that could not be sold?The Great Inventory Wreck of Cisco: Blamed the economy – compared it to an “unforeseeable natural disaster”- Sales plunged 30%- 8,500 people laid off- Stock sunk to $13.63 on April 6, 2004, from $82 in March 2000
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The Demand Chain
CISCO
Ford
Boeing
Merrill Lynch
Auto Dealers
Auto Buyers
AirlinesAir
Travelers
Stock Traders
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Demand Chain Management
Shifts in end-stage demand should drive production planning and inventory decisions
Problem: Available information is of varying levels of accuracy and time discrepancies
B2B firms must understand that the business drivers of their “B” customers are different – must track these drivers for the “20%” key customers accounting for 80% revenue
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Cisco Miscalculated Demand
Cisco’s customers placed multiple orders on Cisco and its competitors during the Year 2000 boom, when network gear was hard to come by, even though they would ultimately make just one purchase – from whomever could deliver the goods first.
Because of long lead times, customers ordered more than they needed to, as a sort of insurance policy.
Cisco’s order books did not hence reflect the real demand. When the economy slowed down abruptly, these orders evaporated.
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Over-reliance on IT Systems
Other networking companies with far less sophisticated tools saw the downturn coming, and downgraded their forecasts months earlier – Cisco Did Not!
Cisco’s highly touted IT systems contributed to the fog that prevented it from seeing what was clear to everyone else… Blinded by their own good press
Big Problem with Cisco’s State-of-the-Art Networked Supply Chain Management Systems… Outsources over 70% of its production to Contract Mfrs… “55% of orders flow from Suppliers to Customers without even touching us”But: No Visibility into the Demand Chain
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Cisco Compounded The Problem!
To lock in suppliers of scarce components during the boom, Cisco placed large orders on multiple contract manufacturers based on demand projections from the company’s sales force – which were artificially inflated.
Factories of Cisco’s Tier 2 Suppliers are mostly located in Southeast Asia, necessitating long delivery times.- JIT is really “Nearly” JIT: Shipping Times are NOT Real-Time!
Just because the faucet was turned off at Cisco, the company could not renege on orders with its contract suppliers which were placed months earlier because of the long lead times.
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Cisco’s Vaunted Management Process Did Not Measure Up!
1. Inflated sales forecasts from Cisco’s customers due to the shortage environment in 2000 Must have corrective mechanism to adjust for the artificial
inflation in salespeople’s forecasts during shortage Dell has a “contingency planning” model for training sales
people to get demand estimates from “B” customers Valuable to institute a reward system for salespeople to
provide “good” sales forecasts Must track business drivers of key customers
2. Forecasting models based on growth: 40 strength quarters of stout growth;
last 3 quarters of extreme growth (66%) No “What If” analysis if growth assumptions did NOT
materialize
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Cisco’s Vaunted Management Process Did Not Measure Up!
3. Models ignored macroeconomic factors such as debt levels, interest rates, the bond market, etc, that overshadows the entire communications industry “ We never built models to anticipate something of
this magnitude” - CEO admitting to The Economist, April
2001
4. Did not encourage key suppliers to share market knowledge Cisco’s supplier, Solectron, saw a growing disparity
between what they and their other customers thought was happening and what Cisco said was happening
“Can you really sit there and confront a customer and tell him he doesn’t know what he is doing with his business” - CIO Magazine, August 1, 2001
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Cisco’s “Sense & Response” Mechanism – Missing during Sept. – Nov., 2000
By Sept. 2000, Cisco’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 Suppliers were strategizing for a downturn in the economy: either a “V” (deep, short but right back up) or a longer, more serious “U”-shaped recession But Cisco remained upbeat
“We haven’t seen any sign of a slowdown”… Chief Strategy Officer, Nov. 2000
“I’ve never been most optimistic”…CEO to analysts, Dec. 4, 2000
Why did Cisco executives not sense the looming problem in the “virtual close” system? The system forecast a slowdown in Japan’s economy in 9 months
before competitors did It enables decision-makers to have real-time access to detailed
operating data.
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Cisco saw the problem a little too late on Dec. 15, 2001. Actual sales had crossed under its projections in
the system… Decided to seriously curtail expenses
3 weeks later, a hiring freeze was on!
What was Cisco doing during Sept. – Nov., 2000? Did they not see that the actual sales line and the
forecast line were converging?
Cisco’s “Sense & Response” Mechanism – Missing during Sept. – Nov., 2000
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Management Imperatives- To Make IT Business-Smart
Example: FedEx vs. UPS
– Same Annual IT Expenditure: $1 B
– But FedEx Annual Revenue: 33% less than UPS
– Difference due to different IT strategies
– FedEx: Decentralized approach to IT management-- Focus on flexibility to meet needs of various customer segments
– UPS: Centralized, standardized IT environment-- Dependable customer service at relatively low cost
1. IT spending should be based on the strategic role of IT to achieve business goals- Industry benchmarks not appropriate
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Management Imperatives- To Make IT Business-Smart
– Information is a critical resource that can provide competitive advantage to the business.
– Examples: Frito-Lay, Elf Atochem.
– Senior management should recognize the potential of the “I” in IT and play a leadership role in bringing about organizational change to make use of better information in the firm’s management process.
– Upgrading the “I” will be all costs and no benefits unless it is used to upgrade the management process, with the help of the “I”, which is more difficult and requires push from top management
2. IT is not “little i, Big T”
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Management Imperatives- To Make IT Business-Smart
Example: Which comes first – ERP or SCM or CRM?– Frito Lay: CRM first– Asian Paints: SCM first– Nike & Hershey: All three together– Owens Corning: ERP first,
but had to seek bankruptcy protection
3. Priorities for IT projects should be set by top management in line with business imperatives.
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Owens Corning put ERP Before CRM
– “You have to have your internal transactions, your base transactions in place before you automate anything to the end-customer” – CIO
– ERP package from SAP costing $ 280 M took 7 years to implement – replaced 200 disparate systems with a single platform to support operations of multiple SBUs in multiple countries
– Got the CRM system from SAP as part of the package – but “everything was being sunk into CORE business systems. CRM didn’t sink in as a priority at the time.”
– Today the CIO concedes that the firm should have focused more on what customers wanted instead of working only on getting its internal processes right. “We should have spent more time working with the customer and gone backward from there.”
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Management Imperatives- To Make IT Business-Smart
4. Head of IT should be business savvy and be an “equal among peers” in the boardroom – CIO is not just a change of title
Characteristic MIS Manager CIO
Reports to CFO CEO
Management Level Middle Senior
Manages Computer Systems Info.Resources
Skills Needed Technical Business
Planning Technical Strategic
Management Style Control Influence
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Management Imperatives- To Make IT Business-Smart
– Leverages “T” expertise across the company
– Enables large and cost-effective contracts with “T” suppliers
– Facilitates global business processes
5. The “T” should be centrally managed by the CIO to realize significant cost savings and strategic benefits that come from centralizing IT capabilities and standardizing IT infrastructure across an organization
Caveat: Limits the company’s responsiveness to differentiated customer segments and is resisted by business unit heads
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Management Imperatives- To Make IT Business-Smart
– A new IT system alone has little value unless it is coupled with a new or redesigned business process, which entails change in the organization
– CIO is responsible for delivering systems on time and on budget, with the potential to be both useful and used, but NOT the organizational changes needed to generate business value from a new system
6. Business leaders should play a significant role in oversight of IT projects, especially the “big” projects; AND be accountable for realizing the anticipated business benefits.
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The Buy Option
System would be available sooner than the “Build” option
Management time to design a custom system saved BUT : Would the standard reports meet user needs?
IF NOT :Custom changes can be done only by the vendor - cost will depend on # of hours billed at the hourly consulting rate
MORE IMPORTANTAll commercial software packages assume:Data is a GIVEN ! IN REALITY : Data is a BIG issue
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Test Drive the Package…Before Buying It
Vendor should give an evaluation copy of the software which should be used for a trial period of 3 - 6 months to check:
Does the promised functionality actually exist?
Does the product work in our technical environment?
Is it really easy to use the product?
... Does it involve significant end-user input?
Does it work with our data? A make or break issue
Can it handle our full data load?
(Simulate the full data load)
How well does it meet our performance metrics?
Is the per-user cost worth the value?
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The Build Option
Can customize to meet user's specific information needs Data to be captured in the system will, hence, be tailored to
generate the information needed – “no more, no less”. Data issues will be identified during the building process User group can trade-off the effort for collecting data and the
value of that data in the report generated Enhancing the system can be done in line with users’ needs
― Users control the destiny of the system ! A Big Problem with the “BUY” Option
― When the Vendor upgrades the software, the Customer HAS TO UPGRADE, even when the customer does not want the enhancements
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A New Model: “Rent” Software- Software-as-a Service (SaaS)
Salesforce.com: A Pioneer to Offer CRM Software through the Web- Launched in 2000 by Marc Benioff, a Silicon Valley
veteran, who rose through the ranks at Oracle doing sales, marketing and product development to become a prominent executive - and one of the youngest – in the 1990s
- An initial backer of Siebel Systems - Made over $ 20 M from his 1993 investment- Goal: “Put Siebel Systems out of business”- Cost of Software: Flat $ 50 Fee Per User Per Month
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Benefits of SaaS
- Scalable: Hire more people, pay more; Lay people off, pay less
- No Investments in Hardware or IT Staff
… All Computing takes place on Salesforce.com machines
- No Upfront Licence Fees for Software
- Time savings in Software Installation
- Software Upgrades: Do not have to start from scratch
- Users can access through a web browser, wherever they are
Rival SaaS Startups - RightNow Technologies, NetSuite, SalesNet…
Siebel Followed Suit in 2002 - “On-Demand” CRM with IBM: $ 60 fee !
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Why Not Just Outsource IT?
Rationale for Outsourcing
– IT is not a core competency of the business
– Outsource to IT service providers who excel in that
– Possible cost savings, especially for offshore outsourcing
AND
– No headaches of managing IT!
BUT… There are Risks
– Service providers may not be flexible to meet changing business needs
– Vulnerable if the provider fails to meet contractual obligations
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Mutual Life Insurance of New York (MONY)- A Case of “IT Out and Back”
1995– Outsourced the IT function staffed by 240 people to Computer
Sciences Corp– Objective: to update MONY’s IT architecture while controlling costs 1997– CEO brought IT back in-house– MONY faced intense pressure from banks and other aggressive
competitors which necessitated radical changes in MONY’s business strategy that required a variety of new systems
– CEO was diffident about the suppliers ability to keep up with MONY’s needs
– IT staff expanded by 37%– IT budget up $60 M in 1998 vs. $42 M in 1997
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Cemex - One of the World’s Digital Innovators
An extraordinary anomaly- Cement: A highly unpromising industry -- Commodity-based; Asset-intensive; -- Low growth; Low profit margins; -- Unpredictable demand -- Uncontrollable environmental factors - weather, traffic jams, government policies,…
- An “Old Economy” Company: Founded in 1906
- Location: Hidalgo, Mexico - “ Middle of Nowhere” -- Not near Silicon Valley, Seattle, Boston,….. -- No special advantages in terms of talent base or high-tech infrastructure. Cemex plant outside Mexico City was in a town with only 20 telephone lines
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Cemex Today…..
- World’s third largest cement manufacturer -- Has plants in 30 countries -- Sales in 60 more countries -- More profitable than either France’s Lafarge or Switzerland’s Holcim
- A blue-print of a “smart” business model -- Added a brilliantly integrated layer of IT to an asset-intensive low-efficiency business -- In today’s digital age, anyone can play!
- Essentially built a “bits” factory to complement and support the “atoms” factory
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The Beginning - A New CEO in 1985
Business Issues
1. An overly diversified company - Also owned hotels, petrochemical plants, mining companies, etc2. High volatility of the Mexican economic and financial systems3. Price pressure from more efficient multinational companies4. Growing competition from new low-cost Asian companies
A number of factors could be listed in the “excuses” section of the CEO letter in the annual report. But the new CEO, grandson of the founder and a Stanford MBA, preferred to change the rules of the game!
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The Transformation….
- Started by divesting almost all the non-cement businesses
- Hired a Wharton MBA to serve as Chief Information Officer
Powerful partnership was THE key-- A CEO attuned to the strategic value of
IT-- A CIO with a genuine understanding of business
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Delivering Ready-mixed Concrete-A Tough Business Anywhere!
- A logistical nightmare to get mixer trucks from the plants to the building sites at the right time -- cement has to be poured within 90 minutes of mixing. - Especially so in Mexico-- wild weather, traffic gridlock, work stoppages and arbitrary government inspections may hit at any time-- And, customers (contractors at the site) who are always changing their orders - 50% of orders are cancelled or rescheduled or changed (vs 5% change rate at a US Cemex affiliate)- Cemex tried to force customers into predictability -- Required orders 24 hours in advance-- Imposed price penalties for change- Still, could promise delivery only within 3 hours
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Starting Point: Who Else has Solved Our Problem?
- Benchmark the Best World-Class Practices
Fed-Ex- Customers never provide forecasts- Achieved unparalleled speed and reliability of delivery of packages to millions of destinations around the world, using Memphis as a hub.
Exxon - Tracking, scheduling and rerouting oil shipments- Global fleet of tankers, at the mercy of ocean weather, military and political unrest, was efficiently managed
Houston 911 Center - Coordinates hundreds of ambulances, fire and police vehicles in response to unpredictable, often life-threatening, emergency calls- Deal with city traffic, inaccurate addresses and incomplete information
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Common Thread in the Three Companies…..
They had developed systems for quickly and accurately capturing, responding to, and sharing information about their customer’s needs. As a result, they were able to substitute management of information for deployment of costly assets such as trucks, ships and employees - BITS in place of ATOMS.
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The IT-Enabled Solution
CEMEXNET, a satellite system for communications (1987 - 89) - Connected 11 Cemex cement factories in Mexico and 175
mixing plants with central “operations center” - Central coordination of supply and demand instead of each plant operating independently - Central dispatching system for routing of 1500 trucks; previously each plant had its own fleet of trucks Computer terminals installed in every delivery truck with Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems - Could dispatch the right truck to pick up and deliver a particular grade of cement (8000 products) - Reroute the truck when the chaotic traffic conditions delayed delivery - Redirect deliveries from one customer to another if last- minute changes were made
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Expert System- For Smarter Decisions
- To project order rates by day, hour and location -- improved predictions as the data grew
- Customer site of the incoming order is triangulated against the mixing plants and delivery trucks scattered throughout the city
- ”Best” combination selected based on traffic, pouring conditions and the pattern of predicted orders
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The Payoff...
- Reduced the 3-hour delivery window for ready-mix concrete to 20 minutes with reliability of over 98%. Goal: 10 minutes.
- Fewer lost orders because the phone systems aren’t tied up
- Uses 35 % fewer trucks -- Less inventory in transit -- Large savings in fuel, equipment maintenance and payroll costs.
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Cemex’s Unique Value Proposition To Its Customers
- Rapid Responses -- Order changes and same-day delivery are standard service
- Reliability -- Worry less about late deliveries -- Avoid huge costs of idle workers in case of late deliveries
- Guarantee -- If the truck is late by over 20 minutes, buyer gets rebate of 5%
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New Technology is Nothing Without New Attitudes ...
- Dispatchers were told: “ You are no longer scheduling; you are committing.”
- Compulsory computer and customer-service training for drivers (with an average schooling of 6 years) -- Six hours at half-pay -- every Sunday for 2 years
- Changing of “old” work rules -- Unions consented on the promise that more efficient trucks meant higher pay.It is better for the Company as well as for us. As a matter of fact, we
are the Company. (Salvador Lamas, a truck driver and union leader)
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Today: IT is a Separate Business
- Spun off the internal IT department, Cemtec, and joined it with 4 other Spanish and Latin American firms in 2000. -- Created Neoris, an IT consultancy
- Neoris is now part of CxNetworks -- a Miami-based subsidiary that Cemex wants to use to turn itself into an e-business
- Launched under CxNetworks: -- Construmix: a construction industry online marketplace -- Latinexus: an e-procurement site
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Effective Management StrategiesUsed by CEOs Who Get IT!
– Should have a clear view as to how the company must operate differently once the investment in IT is in place
1. Operational Strategy
2. Emphasis on Key Processes
– Concentrate IT investments to support re-engineering of key processes such as using the Net to connect with customers and suppliers or helping people at all levels do their jobs more effectively through information support systems
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Effective Management StrategiesUsed by CEOs Who Get IT!
– Make the CIO a member of the top management team so that the CEO and CIO are in touch on a weekly, if not daily, basis.
– Or, set up an effective IT steering committee with the CEO or COO, CIO and the heads of business units that meets periodically to set IT direction within the context of the business strategy and balance company-wide and business unit IT needs
3. Effective Governance
4. Line Managers Should “Get IT”– Make IT education a part of the management training
program to ensure line management at all levels view IT as a competitive weapon, not as a cost
– Encourage efforts to use IT effectively, monitor and reward them