The
Demand/Supply Planning Practice
The
Story: A friend
of ours, the CEO of a $3B firm, told us something
that in many companies could be considered IT heresy. The CEO
believes that his business is critically dependent on IT, in
particular how IT can make information available in new ways to
support the strategies of the company. What he told us was that
the idea that IT was an enabler is a cop-out for IT. “Enabling
is much too passive for me. IT needs to be very proactive in
telling me how it will be used in the business, and what we can
do differently in our strategies.” He went on to explain that
this was a planning problem. Business expects IT to respond to
its needs, but both business and IT also need to develop a clear
strategy (in business and business impact terms) for how they
intend to use IT in the business. This isn’t a system
definition issue, it’s a business use question. Business and IT
must define a common ground between the business plans and the
IT plans that addresses the use of IT in the business.
We
believe that there is a missing link between business and
IT planning which prevents business from making the best use of
IT in supporting its goals and strategies. We call this missing
link the “Strategic Agenda for the Use of IT”, and believe it is
a requirement for effective IT planning in any business. The
business needs a three-part plan for IT, consisting of the
business strategic plan, the IT strategic plan, and the
Strategic Agenda for the use of IT which ties together business
and IT strategic plans.
Next Page:
The Demand Supply
Planning Approach
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