InformationWeek.com

Welcome Guest. | Log In| Register | Membership Benefits

April 13, 1999

Your letters to my print column and this E-mail forum ask some serious questions about managing information technology in today's world. Since today's world is essentially absurd, my serious responses may sometimes sound a little whimsical, and my occasional whimsical ones, serious. In any case, if you want to participate, write to me at lovelace@home.com. I'll respond to those letters that I can. I reserve the right to edit for size and content. Just sign your E-mail the way you want it to appear online.

Dear Herb:
I am a 24-year-old studying part-time in information management while working full time in supply-chain management, the field in which I received my bachelor's degree. I hope to complete my master's degree by the end of 1999 and land a job as a consultant. My interests lie largely in business process improvement, in which I have some project experience. What is your advice for someone like me?

Stefan

Dear Stefan:
You have several excellent leverage points to achieve your desire to be a business process improvement consultant. First of all, supply-chain management is hot now. Many companies that have spent tens of millions of dollars to install ERP systems like SAP now realize that to obtain the maximum benefits from these very expensive software packages, they must change their supply-chain processes. The talent to help them with understanding what changes to make and how to make them is a scarce commodity.

Having a blend of formal training and practical experience in both IT and supply-chain management will cause your resumé to pop to the top of most recruiters' in-baskets as fast as a cork bobs to the surface of a pond. To capitalize on these advantages, it's advisable for you to make sure that your resumé gives some concrete examples, with bottom-line impact, of how your company benefited from your knowledge.

A key point to remember is that consultancies look especially for people who are both problem-solvers and business-oriented. They want individuals who can work as part of a team and who can build relationships with their clients that will result in another engagement for the firm with that client.

Dear Herb:
I read "It's Good To Be The King." I have a question that deserves a whimsical answer. From your experiences, how does a sales representative help to push the product through the appropriation process. I'm talking about a situation in which use of the software results in hard dollar savings. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Danielle

Dear Danielle:
Let's try a multiple choice test. Choose your answer or answers:

Hint: No more than three of the above answers are correct

Dear Herb:
I enjoyed reading your recent article in InformationWeek, "It's Good To Be The King." I have a different question for you as a CIO running a multi-billion dollar company.

Assuming you have your dream CIO decision-support system, what are the top five questions/concerns/issues that you need answered on a day-to-day and long-term basis with respect to your IT infrastructure (assets, applications, and people)?

I would appreciate your insight and response on this.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Raj

Dear Raj:
I would love to have a decision-support system that would answer my top five questions, concerns, or issues with respect to the IT infrastructure. The problem with identifying such key elements is that they differ with the type of business you are in and they change based on the problem du jour. Obvious examples are that availability and response time are of critical importance to a brokerage system, while they may not be as significant to a manufacturing company that views cost as paramount.

However, here are the most likely generic elements--I've added a sixth to your requested five--that are essential to the average (if such an animal exists) business:

Availability to the end user (mean time to failure, mean time to repair)
Response time as seen by the end user
Ease of use and convenience to the end user
Security level and attempts to violate
Cost to operate and maintain
Flexibility and speed to make modifications as needed by changed business conditions

Dear Herb:
I continue to re-read the series you wrote on meetings ("The First Law Of Meetings," "No Decision Before Its Time," and "If It Isn't Vital, Let's Talk") in InformationWeek.

I was entertained and fascinated. I completely agree with you. Have you published a book on the subject yet? I want to make sure I have the entire series of articles. What is the best method?

Thank you,
Ray M.

Dear Ray:
Wow! You have a memory. That trio of articles was published quite a while ago. Funny you should ask about a book, though. I am working on a book that contains all of my columns--along with the background behind each one (which I think will be of some interest to people) and including some deletions that never made it through the editing process.

In the interim, at the bottom of this page, there's a link that will let you search all of the back issues of the column, both the print version and the online "Ask The Secret CIO."

Dear Herb:
What's your advice on getting noticed by big search firms or companies in order to enhance a career?

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Y.

Dear Y:
Do something spectacular.

Have a sparkling success such as putting in a big enterprise system that actually works and do it without exceeding your dollar and time budget--or a mild success in anything that has the word "Internet" in it.

Conversely, have a comet-like failure that identifies you as a leader in the industry who is on the cutting edge of technology and business vision. If you can judiciously blame others for the major flaws while modestly admitting to your own shortcomings (I never should have assumed the CEO would have enough time to understand the technology; I underestimated the need for repetitive training for the troops, etc.), then all of the big search firms will beat a path to your door.

Dear Herbert:
I read your article, "The Joys of Travel" while on board a train that goes from London to Cambridge, where I had set up temporary shop. This was a two-week work-related trip that took me far from the comforts of my home office in Cleveland.

I cringed as your article reminded me that there was still the grim airplane trip home. As it turns out, the plane ride was fine but getting to that point was hell; I rehearsed my resignation letter as I waited in line to fight with the Continental agent.

When I got back to my office in the States, everyone asked me about my trip to England like I was on some sort of "holiday". I was polite to them all but felt like copying your article and silently passing it out.

Thanks for the insightful article; they will never understand fully but perhaps you have made a dent!

Peter B.

Dear Peter:
Sadly, I suspect that they think we are protesting too much. The only remedy, I am afraid, is to get them to take our places on the next couple of trips. Oh, and schedule an important meeting for the morning of their return.

Dear Herb:
Excellent article, "Align Yourself Today." It is well thought out and gets to one of the root causes as to why companies have such a difficult time aligning IT with business goals. As an independent business systems consultant (15+ years of an IS background), I have to ask you to stop because you are giving away all my secrets.

Being able to talk with users about their business needs, processes, etc. and making IT recommendations in plain English to both the user and IS community has allowed me to be quite successful. I get repeat business because of the trust built up by previous interactions with the client's business user community. Part of that trust is directly related to the ability to communicate.

Now for my question: I read more than 30 IT and business periodicals each month. In dealing with IT consultants, I find myself asking for clarification on terminology and acronyms quite often--and to my surprise, these individuals use the words but have extreme difficulty in describing the meaning or purpose. Do you find yourself running across this more often as well? I sometimes expect it from internal staff but not from high-priced consulting talent.

Keep up the good work!
Keith J.

Dear Keith:
Yes, I have the same problem as you do with consultants using terminology and then not being able to define it clearly, if at all. However, I don't think it should be surprising that this lack of clarity springs forth from their utterances. Actually, these high-priced gurus, not the internal IT staff members, are the ones who originally coin the phrases that you and I do not understand. Keep in mind that many of them make a very good living from inventing new terminology that has no real substance or from selling expertise in new technology that has no valid purpose in an enterprise.

A moment's reflection provides the answer to why you and I get such meaningless answers when we are so crass as to ask them to explain what they are saying. These consultants are rusty at having to communicate clearly what they really mean. After all, only a very secure client is going to take the risk of sounding dumb in front of a room full of people by telling a very important consultant that an answer is still not understandable.

Herbert W. Lovelace is CIO at a multibillion-dollar international company. Herb practices his day job under an alias and has changed the names of colleagues to protect the guilty.