After the War In Iraq, The Future of Warfare and the Future of Enterprise IT Look Very Similar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2003

Austin, Texas - Bruce Skaistis served as an armchair general during Operation Iraqi Freedom. From his position in front of the TV receiving regular updates on the war and in front of his computer monitoring various Internet news sites, he watched a new kind of warfare unfold in Iraq.

As the war began to wind down, many of the "experts" who had offered their perspectives during the fighting began to offer their insights on what our military successes in Afghanistan and Iraq meant in terms of the future of warfare. As Bruce listened to them, he realized many of their predictions about the future of warfare also applied to the future of enterprise IT.

Here are six lessons he thinks we can learn about the future of enterprise IT from the war in Iraq:

Lesson 1: Streamline Fighting Forces - Much like the military, enterprises will be using smaller, quick strike IT efforts in the future to achieve targeted objectives and benefits quickly. Enterprise-wide IT initiatives will be broken into a series of small projects to achieve benefits as quickly as possible and to eliminate many of the risks associated with big projects. The targeted approach will produce better results – and improve the cost effectiveness of most IT efforts.

Lesson 2: Align Technology with Strategy to Create Advantages - The military's recent success with technology is a very strong argument for the importance of making sure an enterprise's IT efforts are tightly aligned with the enterprise's overall strategies and business objectives.

Lesson 3: Protect Yourself Against Friendly Fire Casualties - Friendly fire incidents can occur in the IT world just like they do in battle. It happens most often when an IT initiative being driven by one business unit or function overlaps with another IT initiative being driven by a different business unit or function – and the efforts end up at cross-purposes with each other. The best way to protect against friendly fire incidents in the IT world is to use an enterprise-wide IT governance structure to prioritize IT efforts, allocate IT resources, and monitor IT activities.

Lesson 4: Agility Wins - So Focus on Speed and Flexibility - The coalition forces in Iraq used speed and flexibility to fight a very different kind of war and to achieve strategic advantage. The old monolithic IT model used by most enterprises doesn't work well in today's fast paced competitive environment. IT decisions have to be made more quickly, critical IT initiatives have to be completed in the shortest possible time, and benefits have to be realized almost immediately.

Lesson 5: Give People the Preparation, Tools, and Objectives - Then Get Out Of the Way and Let Them Make It Happen - The coalition forces were very bright, very well prepared, and very focused on their objectives. That's the way it should work with IT too. You need to train and develop your IT people, give them the tools they need, and make sure they clearly understand their objectives and what is expected of them. Then you need to get out of the way and let them make things happen.

Lesson 6: Protect Your Supply Lines - In the first few days of the war, our fighting forces outran their supply lines – and the supply lines were left vulnerable to attack. An enterprise's legacy/core systems and infrastructure represent the supply line in the IT world. There's a good chance an enterprise's new IT efforts will run into problems if the enterprise doesn't take care of its legacy/core systems and infrastructure too – so don't forget to protect your supply lines.

NOTE: This is an abbreviated version of a briefing we send to clients and prospective clients. The full briefing is posted on our Web site at www.eglobalcio.com/eglobal_briefings.html.

Bruce Skaistis is the founder of eGlobal CIO. He began his career as a consultant for Arthur Andersen and was CIO of a large bank group before forming his own information technology management services firm. He has extensive IT management, process optimization, change facilitation, and strategic planning experience with organizations in different industries.

CONTACT:
Bruce Skaistis
bruce.skaistis@eglobalcio.com
Office: 512-926-0016
Cell: 918-361-7450
eGlobal CIO
9600 Great Hills Trail, Suite 150W
Austin, Texas 78759
www.eglobalcio.com





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