It is very common to see a gap analysis as a very first deliverable in most Business Process optimization initiatives, regardless how these initiatives are branded. For that very reason, quality of the result for this exercise can either completely obliterate any chance for this investment to show any return, or give a reasonable opportunity for the initiative to succeed. Yet, many projects allocate a very small proportion of time and resources to this critical stage in the initiative’s life cycle.

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Why is it so easy to forget that IT technology exist to leverage an organizational change? I just read a blog post “IT to Business: I won’t read your mind” describing “successful” implementation of technology for nor particular reason. Why are stories like that so common?

Nothing improved because no one had tried to improve anything.  The direction had been “throw technology at problems and they go away,” but they don’t.  You cannot solve a problem by introducing technology by itself.  You have to understand the problem first.  The technology was not wrong.  The systems worked great, but they didn’t solve measurable business problems.

One reason I can think of is that IT is miscast to lead Organizational Transformation initiatives. I suppose if you hire an architect to help you with a problem, likelihood is you will end up with a house. Or a court case if you hire a lawyer. Do I need any more analogies to make my point?

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

  - George Bernard Shaw

I would state that many IT initiatives could possibly produce better results without technology being involved at all.

There is an update to Inherent risk to globalization of BPM story. WSJ Business Technology editor Ben Worthen reports

Authorities in Dubai have impounded two ships they believe cut undersea communications cables earlier this year, disrupting Internet access in the Middle East and India in the process.

Great news! But apparent vulnerability and lack of redundancy keeps my concerns about Global service availability risks alive.

If you read this, you are probably a member of “Knowledge Economy”. Does it make you an “expert” in your field?

Perhaps it would become easier if we start with definitions -

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  CRM, if it’s working right, is a tool for destroying the 80-20 business equation.

The best examples of CRM wrecking 80-20 rule are experienced when methodology is formalized, integrated into business processes and encoded within software. Few examples to illustrate the point are dramatic improvements in

• margin via elimination of excessive discounting caused by inadequate forecasting methods and practices;
• new sales hires retention and rump up enabled by clearly stated process guidance, terminology, and definitions; 
• lead conversion ratio since streamlining of pipeline management eliminates “stale” leads;
• customer satisfaction, i.e. retention enabled by flowing customer (contact/person) information across departments/sales teams/customer support/marketing, etc. within a proper context.

That makes CRM initiatives such a high risk/but much higher return proposition - if done right the ROI is much higher and faster than most of other options.