I attended the CIO Summit that Boston SIM sponsored on March 10 and heard a very interesting talk by Allan Hackney, SVP & CIO, John Hancock Financial Services. He introduced a framework from Richard Hunter and George Westerman's book, The Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value. Hackney introduced a two by two matrix (2x2) that categorizes how IT can add value by improving business performance. Here is the matrix:
Source: The Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value p. 96.
When I saw the 2x2 I thought of SharePoint. It provides a good way to categorize how our clients are using SharePoint to to add value in their organizations. Here are my thoughts by category:
- Optimizing: Sharepoint's workflows are a great way to improve business processes. Our clients are using InfoPath forms to capture information, for example customer service requests, and route it to the appropriate employee based on request type, client, or other variables. While many organizations use the workflows built into ERP systems for some processes, there are many other processes that can be automated using SharePoint.
- Reshaping and External Informing: We have used SharePoint to build customer and partner portals for several of our clients. These portals make it easier for the customer or partner to do business with our client. They might provide the partner with pricing information (external informing). The portal could also open a new two-way communication channel between the customer and the seller, sharing information like service requests.
- Internal informing: Sharepoint provides a great way to get key information to employees. We use project-based SharePoint sites to share key documents, calendars, and contact information with our project teams. Our marketing document library is the definitive source for proposals delivered to our clients, making it easier for our sales team to gather the information they need to write a new proposal.
I'm sure I could think of dozens of other ways that SharePoint can add value using the Hunter and Westerman model. I'm looking forward to using the 2x2 to help improve our communication with both IT and business leaders.
Comments