OrgIntelligence Presentation at Open Group Conference, May 10th

Editor's Notes

1. Most enterprises are faced with demands and opportunities for deploying the latest smart technologies and social networking tools, both internally and externally. But fancy software won't achieve its potential for business benefit without an architectural framework. Proper and coordinated use of these tools can result in significant improvements in the ability of the organization to detect and interpret changes in the environment, to respond decisively and appropriately to these signals, and learn rapidly from new experience. These are all signs of organizational intelligence. The challenge is to deploy innovative technologies and working practices that will enhance the collective intelligence of the enterprise.
2. The collective intelligence of an organization can be improved by appropriate technologies used in appropriate ways to tackle the inherent complexity of modern business in a dynamic environment.  These technologies include business intelligence, event processing, knowledge management, process improvement and social networking.  Most large organizations use these technologies, but fail to join them together or use them effectively, so there is a huge missed opportunity here for IT.  Ultimately, the value that IT can bring to business is not just from automating clerical tasks and enabling large-scale global operational processes, but from enabling and supporting management processes such as coordination and innovation.  Organizational intelligence is a critical measure of the management capacity of an organization in a demanding competitive environment, and IT has a key role in improving organizational intelligence.  This talk will provide a roadmap for IT to make a strong contribution to business viability and survival.
3. http://hci.stanford.edu/jheer/projects/enron/v1/http://www.stewwebb.com/bush_narcotics_money_laundry_funds_obama_mccain.htm“McKinsey … were there [for months] looking for people who had the talent to think outside the box. It never occurred to them that, if everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing.”http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_07_22_a_talent.htm
4. We may differentiate customers (and their behaviour and intentions) according to a number of factors, with greater or lesser granularity. Each degree of differentiation increases the complexity of the process. Under the right conditions, increased differentiation may produce better outcomes for the organization and its customers. Under the wrong conditions, differentiation merely adds complication, increases cost and risk, and may produce worse outcomes.There are arbitrarily many degrees of differentiation – these are just typical points on the curve.
5. The introduction of the loyalty card represented a radical strategic shift for the large retail chains. Stores now had a formal basis for recognizing a customer as the same again. They can identify customers, and collect and analyze data about the behavior of specific customers. And they can use this analysis to differentiate the response to different customers. For example, different customers may receive different special offers. Amazon is of course well-known for its pioneering work in providing targeted information and deals based on a customer’s browsing and buying history, and creating new forms of associative information which may be reflected back to the customer.Obviously if the retailer can identify the customer as she enters the store, then this differentiation can be done as the customer browses, rather than only when the customer comes to pay. This is relatively easy to implement with online shopping (for example through the use of cookies); and there are various mechanisms that might achieve the same result in a physical store – perhaps face-recognition software in the store camera, or loyalty cards with RFID chips – if the obvious privacy concerns can be allayed.And if there are RFID chips on the goods and RFID scanners on the shelves, then the customer can be presented with information based on the stuff that is already in the shopping basket. Again this capability is very easy to implement for online shopping, and this stimulates retailers to build an equivalent capability for physical shopping. (This is an instance of an increasingly common generalization pattern: take a simple innovation from one channel and look for ways of implementing it in other channels. We then need to define a general structure for the data from different but equivalent sources, and render the data through a common service interface, to enable aggregation and comparison of data across channels.)
6. Effective differentiation is a function of the intelligence embedded within the customer management capability. The greater the “quantity” of intelligence, the greater the capacity to differentiate effectively.For the sake of analysis , we may regard “Intelligence” and “Operation” as separate sub-capabilities of Customer Management.We can then identify the signals that pass between “Intelligence” and “Operation” , and the attenuation and amplification mechanisms that govern these signals.
7. What are the events and information flows that help to join up the retail operation as a whole?Where is the strategic knowledge of the enterprise located, and how is it continuously development and effectively used? What are the mechanisms to support innovation and organizational learning?
8. Operating Model Quadrants (Adapted by Clive Finkelstein from Figure 2.3 of “Enterprise Architecture as Strategy”)http://esvc000904.wic047u.server-web.com/ten/ten38.htmhttp://rvsoapbox.blogspot.com/2010/05/differentiation-and-integration.html
9. There are actually three contrasting agendas, but we’ll save the third agenda until later in the presentation. It is not clear to what extent the third agenda still counts as EA.1. simplify around single (simple) business model: single definition of 'market' qua single-sided market.2. differentiate business models and integrate to span their differences: multiple definitions of 'market' qua single-sided markets.3. differentiate business models AND differentiate the modes of integration: multiple 'markets' within multiple contexts-of-use qua multi-sided markets.(PJB)
10. Appreciating how information supports business objectives, and identifying where improved information (e.g. greater speed, greater accuracy or granularity) could improve business outcomes (e.g. through improved decision-making or better-targeted processes).Identifying the feedback loops that refine key processes and policies based on results, and making these loops faster and more effective,Shaping the organization (using RAEW) to facilitate decision-making, policy-making and organizational learning.