Customer-centricity is irrevocably changing IT. What other disciplines are being reshaped?

Posted by Dick Lee on May 31, 2011

0 comments | 1132 reads

Used to be enterprise technology was designed for finance and/or manufacturing first – and all other functions, especially those directly affecting customer experience, as an afterthought. Still today finance and manufacturing technology needs are typically taken more seriously than other functions requirements. But that’s changing.

Increasingly, the business community is viewing technology’s first obligation as enabling and improving process. When process design starts out at the customer end, rather than deep in the bowels of the company, technology must start there too. Otherwise, process and technology inevitably wind up misaligned. Plus, as it turns out, supporting finance in particular with technology is much less demanding than supporting customer-affecting work. So why would any systems architect let the less demanding functions dominate systems design and decisions? For example, we’re working now with a client that hired us to redesign process and then help select a new ERP system to support process. But they now realize that managing service operations is their major challenge, while they have tons of accounting and finance options. So we’ll design around the application layer.

This customer-driven turn of events turns systems architecture and IT overall on their respective ears. But we would do well to step back and look at other functions to anticipate customer primacy turning them outside-in as well. Your observations?

Republished with author's permission from original post by Dick Lee.

Dick Lee

Consultant, author and educator Dick Lee, founded High-Yield Methods in 1994. HYM helps clients build customer-centric organizations with process design, organizational design and enabling technology. Please visit Dick's Linkedin group Building the Customer-Centric Organization. For more information visit www.h-ym.com.

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