Marching to Different Drummers

A colleague recently asked of an online professional group of which we’re members, “Is your personal computer faster than the one the boss gave you?” While answers are still trickling in, it looks pretty clear that the answer is, “Yes, of course.”

Now, we do tend a bit toward the geeky, so there’s a bit of built-in bias. But it also stands to reason that business- and corporate-issued technology tools will lag in performance a bit behind what we choose to have in our dens or studies or family rooms. At home our criteria will be cost, of course, but also the ability to play games, or download entertainment files of various kinds, or shop easily and quickly, or, increasingly, keep up with friends and family on social networking sites.

Business infrastructure marches to an entirely different drummer. It needs to be cost-effective. It needs to be compatible with the systems on which the company operates. It needs to be efficiently supportable by the IT department, whatever form that takes. And it needs to be used for as long as it efficiently delivers value to the company. (Let’s not even talk about smartphones and the like – talk about IT headaches!)

That latter criterion is an interesting one. How does the IT department determine that it is doing what it is charged with as effectively as possible? As it happens, we should have an answer for you pretty soon now. Ventana Research is finishing up benchmark research on IT’s uses of analytics, metrics and KPIs as part of a much larger research look at business analytics. Stay tuned.

Let me know your thoughts or come and collaborate with me on Facebook and  LinkedIn.

Regards,

Alan Kay – VP Research Management