Sustaining Competitive Advantage Of Divested Business

Market realities and increased competition have pressurized corporations to revisit their priorities and operational strategies. Divesting non-core business units that no longer fit strategic goals and selling under-performing units can be a viable means to resolve pressing business issues at hand. However, separating a business unit (BU) from its parent organization is wrought with tremendous IT challenges for both the parent as well as the BU being divested. Here are a few observations from the perspective of business unit(s) that are being divested to ensure they safeguard the competitive advantage in the face of divestiture.

 

Taxonomy for an Enterprise

When you visit a shopping malls or a Grocery stores, you will see  all the items  – everything is arranged in aisle, racks, shelves with label, tag (name and description, if some cases), price – product expiry information, nutrition information and etc. It makes a shopper very easy to find what is looking for and where to find it thereby enabling SELF-HELP experience – touch the product and feel it before you actually buy it.

 

Take Small BPM Steps For Some Big Leaps

At a time when the IT investment decisions are reportedly moving along with a sense of restrain, some projects and investments seem to be getting delayed or put on hold.
This situation marked by lower budgets and slower decision cycles has not only caused discomfort to IT vendors, but also CIOs, IT managers, and  even business managers looking to have  important, semi-critical  projects take off.The biggest casualty to you may be the value benefits you had expected from those IT project investments originally planned.

Simplifying BPM Implementations

Many BPM projects start with a big fan fair since it is the buzzword today across the globe. Organizations are skeptical to put their neck across new technologies; therefore, one should appreciate those few who take this initiative into their organizations. At the same time, it is equally important to do it the right way. In other words, achieving the project goals is not easy & this blog talks about some of the avoidable pitfalls associated with any BPM project & the best way to work around those pitfalls. A lot depends on the way the project is handled,how the vision is set & how various teams strive to achieve the project goals.

B, P & M of BPM

When it comes to starting an initiative that involves all shapes, styles & kinds of brains in an organization, it calls for a challenge. For the brave – I’d say it’s an opportunity. To add more to this natural complexity, you can add a dose of misconception, resistance & of course internal politics. Now imagine yourself at the centre stage of all of this; trying to lead a BPM initiative.

The Tao of BPM

Tao is Chinese for "Way" or "Path," and is the core tenet for Taoist doctrine. It is also considered the path of equilibrium. Obviously in the constant search for rationalization, and improvisation the Tao principles metaphorically parallel and converge with the BPM philosophy.

Confusion >> Fusion…Have you figured it out yet?

“If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius”. That is a wise saying and is indeed reflective of the many theories surrounding the much hyped FUSION release. That is an interesting nomenclature and is truly befitting the era of fusion music, fusion food, fusion culture and slowly encompassing the technology circles with FUSION applications.

All said and done for each of us anticipating the FUSION release - the mystery around this technology of the future still remains.

Business Process Management - The Choices

Business Process Management or BPM for short has been in conjunction with SOA (Service Oriented Architecture, for the uninitiated) tom-tom-ed as the panacea of all that ails the current stack of monolithic applications that currently dominates the enterprise landscape. Well, given the history of the software industry’s panaceas there are skeptics and the optimists who both abound.

For the skeptics it is yet another way for the industry to bring in more complexity to extend and enhance the share of the customer’s wallet. To the optimist it is finally an application that delivers on its promise of simplifying IT. But the truth (as usual) is somewhere in the middle. And the truth is not universal – its different things to different people. To get there lets see what BPM is or represents.