Owning Outcomes

It seems to me that great I.T. organizations go beyond solid infrastructure management and on time, on budget project completion.

These things are important, but don't matter if the people using the new processes and transactions aren't effective.

Business outcomes matter.

It's the difference between installing technology and meaningfully improving business process outcomes.

It's ironic that every major system project is ascribed big business benefits - more anticipated sales, reduced expenses, more inventory turns, reduced cost purchasing transactions, more accurate or faster accounting.

Yet if you look how your company measures their I.T. function, how many of you provide bonuses or raises based upon whether the initial project benefits were achieved?

If you're like most companies I've seen, the answer is not many of you. I.T. is generally measured on two things. Helpdesk (how quickly you fix things that break) and Project Management - delivering the project when you said you would (and for the price you quoted).

I.T. is in a unique position to really help achieve business benefits and yet we seldom volunteer (or are called upon) to do it. Your I.T. staff knows which users "get it" and which don't. They know which sites are trying to work around the system "to make thngs more efficient" and are actually doing the exact opposite. They know how many P.O.s are being automatically three way matched and how many are overidden.

They know who is entering data accurately and who doesn't. They can tell from the Helpdesk calls. They can tell by running simple queries against the system. They can provide this information to line managers and they can provide comparative reports, so one site can be placed "in competition" with another for process excellence. They can easily see how purchases are being coded and classified. They have visibility into each sites accounting practices and can tell whether they're using accounts as planned.

But it isn't done that often. And too many times, process outcomes fall short of initial expectations.

Ask your Project Managers what they might do differently if their salary increases or bonuses were based on achieving original justification improvements.

Their answers might surprise you.

"Owning outcomes" places I.T. in the same lifeboat with the business. They'll start thinking about post go live reporting metrics (how well we're using the system). They begin to address more effective training, instead of writing user manuals.

To paraphrase Johnny Cochran:
"The project don't stop 'til the benefit's got."

And that's a good thing.