Business optimization seems to be one of the latest buzz phrases out there. But what does this really mean? And how is this different from what companies have been doing in the past?
Well, for the past two decades, companies have primarily focused their IT investments on automating their business processes, with the objectives of driving faster processing and reduced costs. This has been driven by an "application" agenda to implement ERP and Financial applications, supply chain management solutions, and call center and CRM applications. However, these types of investments are no longer creating a sustainable competitive advantage for organizations.
As a result, over the past few years, we've seen new IT initiatives increasingly focused on optimizing business to drive a more sustainable competitive advantage. Think about it like those old BSF advertisements - we don't make a lot of the things you use, we make a lot of the things you use BETTER! Business optimization is about making your business processes, customer interactions and everyday operating decisions BETTER. This means moving from just leveraging ERP and financial applications to providing increased financial risk insight for better business decisions...moving from just managing your supply chain to enabling more dynamic demand planning...and moving from just managing your call center and customer relationships to providing increased insights to improve customer service and drive greater profitability from your customers.
These new initiatives are all dependent on information, and having an information agenda in place to ensure that your organization is leveraging all the information at its disposal to create a competitive advantage in the market. So ultimately, information becomes the key to optimizing your business.
