[DOWNLOAD] "It in a Cold Climate: This is Not the Time to Cut Back on Supply Chain IT Investment, Advises Dr Richard Williams of Procertis (Information Technology)" by Supply Chain Europe * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

It in a Cold Climate: This is Not the Time to Cut Back on Supply Chain IT Investment, Advises Dr Richard Williams of Procertis (Information Technology)

eBook details

Title: It in a Cold Climate: This is Not the Time to Cut Back on Supply Chain IT Investment, Advises Dr Richard Williams of Procertis (Information Technology)
Author : Supply Chain Europe
Release Date : January 01, 2009
Genre: Business & Personal Finance,Books,Industries & Professions,
Pages : * pages
Size : 63 KB

Description

Whenever they hear the word "recession," the first thing that most organizations do is adopt a siege mentality, stop all "non-essential" expenditure and hunker down for a long winter. Budgets get cut, new initiatives are stopped in their tracks and everyone concentrates on keeping the lights on as cheaply as possible. It's like a human body that, when faced with exposure to frigid temperatures, automatically cuts off the blood supply to peripheral vessels to preserve its core temperature. Sadly, if left too long, this often results in frostbite at the extremities and in advanced cases--amputation--causing great harm and long-term debilitation to the body as a whole. As in life, so it is with IT. We've lost count of the times we've seen major IT initiatives cut off in their prime, with already committed expenditure thrown away because the economic wind has changed direction. A classic example, in our experience, was when a major global automotive manufacturer--sensing a downturn in its profits--cancelled the development of a new product definition system that would have saved it millions, preferring instead to soldier on with a raft of legacy systems, the longer-term costs of which would swamp any short-term saving made by the cancellation. This kind of reaction is common and can result from many individual factors but, at the very least, it suggests two underlying truths. First, that the organization has failed to understand the fundamental relationship between its IT and the business that it's supposed to support and, secondly, that there is no objective mechanism for the business to link IT investment with strategic business goals or benefits--the lack of which makes it possible to cut the blood supply to organs that may prove to be vital later. The first point is well understood. Despite indignant protests to the contrary, most business people still see IT as a necessary but largely incomprehensible cost. And IT leaders don't, in the main, know how to educate them. That's why so many businesses periodically attempt to outsource the 'problem,' only to find themselves with a new kind of management headache. Of course, they should regard IT as a premiere resource for innovation in their ability to ride out the storm and emerge smiling into the new sunlit dawn, but this requires consideration of the second point.