Integration is a business issue (or rather, it should be)
Despite what most consultants and IT-manager are propagating, it is my strong believe that EAI projects should be seen as business projects. The problem lies in getting corporate management to agree on that matter...
So how would you go about achieving just that goal? Relatively simple; just explain to them how their organisation would create a strategic advantage by executing the project. There is no simple one-fits-all solution to this, it is always context bound. That said, let's look at an example scenario.
Imagine for while, a company that delivers ready made components for a product, which it builds from self-made components and components bought from other companies. To make it more real, let's suppose this was a company delivering aircraft doors to specification, using doorhandles from a third party.
These production processes tend to go on for many years, since planes are usually in production for decades. It being a high-yield business, it is important for the aircarft constructor to get the doors at the latest possible time, but never too late so as not to delay the delivery of the aircraft.
The goals of timely delivery are untill now met by maintaing constant contact between the door supplier and the aircraft constructor. The door supplier would do the same with the door handle supplier and so on. We can see a nice supply chain building here, and in reality the complexity will be much greater of course!
In this particular case a very simple sales pitch aws put together to give the doorbuilder a competitive edge, and the bottom line was to create an automated online, realtime insight into the supply chain. This would be achieved by extending the doorbuilders IT systems to enable the aircarft constructor to check delivery schedules online, including the delivery schedules from the doorhandler company.
The ultimate result would be a fully transparent supply chain, since it
was foreseen that the suppliers of the doorbuilders company would be updating their delivery schedules online as well. It did not take management a long time to realize the strategic advantage of this integration project, and it was no big problem in getting the budget from them either.
Just imagine what it would have taken to approach this as an IT only project; as you know, and will propably have experienced, it is not easy to get a budget in that case.
This is naturally a simple example, dated also, but it goes to show that their is allways a possibillity of getting management buy-in for your integration projects.
Next time, I will write some more on an EAI maturity model and growth path I have drawn up.
Regards,
Jan Kopmels
Despite what most consultants and IT-manager are propagating, it is my strong believe that EAI projects should be seen as business projects. The problem lies in getting corporate management to agree on that matter...
So how would you go about achieving just that goal? Relatively simple; just explain to them how their organisation would create a strategic advantage by executing the project. There is no simple one-fits-all solution to this, it is always context bound. That said, let's look at an example scenario.
Imagine for while, a company that delivers ready made components for a product, which it builds from self-made components and components bought from other companies. To make it more real, let's suppose this was a company delivering aircraft doors to specification, using doorhandles from a third party.
These production processes tend to go on for many years, since planes are usually in production for decades. It being a high-yield business, it is important for the aircarft constructor to get the doors at the latest possible time, but never too late so as not to delay the delivery of the aircraft.
The goals of timely delivery are untill now met by maintaing constant contact between the door supplier and the aircraft constructor. The door supplier would do the same with the door handle supplier and so on. We can see a nice supply chain building here, and in reality the complexity will be much greater of course!
In this particular case a very simple sales pitch aws put together to give the doorbuilder a competitive edge, and the bottom line was to create an automated online, realtime insight into the supply chain. This would be achieved by extending the doorbuilders IT systems to enable the aircarft constructor to check delivery schedules online, including the delivery schedules from the doorhandler company.
The ultimate result would be a fully transparent supply chain, since it
was foreseen that the suppliers of the doorbuilders company would be updating their delivery schedules online as well. It did not take management a long time to realize the strategic advantage of this integration project, and it was no big problem in getting the budget from them either.
Just imagine what it would have taken to approach this as an IT only project; as you know, and will propably have experienced, it is not easy to get a budget in that case.
This is naturally a simple example, dated also, but it goes to show that their is allways a possibillity of getting management buy-in for your integration projects.
Next time, I will write some more on an EAI maturity model and growth path I have drawn up.
Regards,
Jan Kopmels
posted by Jan Kopmels at 12:07 AM
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