"Software @ your services" or SaaS?

When looking through my pile of brochures and commercial mails since the beginning of the year, I noticed that there is considerable amount of initiatives around topics like "IT governance", "CIO-CEO collaboration", "Business-IT connection" ... Reading the background and driver for the seminars, roundtables, publications ... I could only conclude that the real topic is about "the need for business applications and solutions (or IT in general if you wish) to be more or better at the service of the company's business".

The underlying reasoning has to do with the level of maturity of IT organisations. It is exactly the "lack of maturity" that is still quite often the painpoints of IT organizations and that feed the need for these "governace" initiatives.
I personally use a very simple kind of "maturity model", that basically scale IT organisations on a 0 to 3 scale of maturity.

• level 1 means that IT strungles with requirements like stability, availability, reliability. The basic level of service for the business is not for granted. This is a situation where the IT manager is a firefighter, trying to keep the systems and applications running (and not more than that)
• For a level 2 IT organization stability is not the problem. The infrastructure and applications are running, the system do to a large extend what is needed (at least what was requested at a certain point in time). The main characteristics here are re-activeness and the fact that IT consumes lots of resources, both in money and time, to adopt and evolve as is requested by the business (slow and expensive)
• The highest level of maturity is 3. An IT organisation at this level drives process changes and improvements for the business. The IT team is a key player to steer innovations or operational efficiencies for the business. Fast, easy and real impact ... are characteristics of such an IT organization.

To put it in other words, in a level 3 IT organization, the enterprise applications or the software is at the service of the business; fast and flexible. IT is an enabler and a partner of the business. In this ultimate level of maturity, the solutions are serving the business to be "best run".

In lots of publications these days, software as a service is put forward as the solution for IT organizations. Aside from the installed landscape, the existing platform and portfolio of applications, ... a SaaS solution is supposed to bring speed and flexibility. Without neglecting the positive elements from a SaaS solution, one can of course question how to deal with topics like long term sustainability, integration, integrity and yes "flexibility" is a longer term.

I can only conclude that IT organisations and IT suppliers, tend to come with technology solutions (and acronyms) as a solution for everything. Whether SaaS, or technology solutions like SOA, enterprise architecture ... will facilitate the communication between business and IT is questionable. One thing is for sure, there is a need to better "link" business and IT. So we should all be happy to see the mutitude of initiatives to bring IT and business closer together. Maybe topics like how enterprise software (business applications), can facilitate the collaboration and communication and help IT organizations to grow their level of maturity, rather than explaining the next big things ...

Crisis is like driving in fog

When one drives with a car in foggy circumstances late night on a dark road, there are acouple of golden rules. Actually these golden rules might help a business leader when he has to deal with today's economic situation. There are lots of parallels

• don't drive too fast : Visibility is less than in regular weather conditions, so you better be carefull, slow down and take care; watch out for things you might not have seen coming near to you.
• don't brake : if you panic and hit the brake, you might be hit by other drivers on the road, and even create more panic. Accidents in fog generate chaos, more than during regular circumstances.
• pulling over and waiting will not bring you anywhere : since it is hard to predict how long the fog will stay, you better proceed at the appropriate speed, without taking too much risk. If one is unable to drive during foggy weather, one can question whether the driver should get a drivers licence at all.
• putting too much lights on might have a contra-productive effect; fog does not go away by lots of lights. Adapt you speed and visibility, but do not overreact.
• neglecting the fog and driving like normal is dangereous: driving in foggy situations does not necessarily cause more accidents if one adapts to the situation.

Drive careful, wear a safty belt (like always), stay focused and control your speed (there are limits). The fog will disappear sooner or later.