Fred Mapp, former AMD CIO

Provide Solutions Through Leadership and Consulting

Managing the Only Constant The first four initiatives provided a roadmap for transformation. If you've been following along at your home or office, you've made huge strides in alignment, process development, architecture optimization, and human resources. Unfortunately, thereIt's no time to rest on your laurels. Change—the only real constant in the business world—won’t allow it. In this initiative, we’re going to make sure you have the processes in place to manage change and keep your organization ahead of the curve. The following are a few examples of the types of change you will likely encounter.

A New Request It never fails; you've just got all these systems and processes up and running, and now someone wants to change something. How do you handle the request? How do you make sure it fits your optimized architecture and the "many-to-the-few"application strategy, not to mention your budget limitations and priorities? And, if it doesn't fit, how do you convince them that they can't go out and do it on their own by setting up their own "shadow IT"department?

A New Business Acquisition At the other end of the spectrum, what do you do if your organization acquires another organization? How do you handle the task of bringing a new and completely different IT department into the fold without compromising all the standards you've established?

New Technology Assessment New technology poses another challenge. How will you evaluate it? How do you handle requests for a new technology that doesn't quite fit? How will you evaluate new technologyIt's impact on your overall corporate strategy?

The Answer: Processes If you've been following this column, it will come as no surprise that my answer is clearly defined business processes. We initially established business processes in Initiative 2. Now we'l need to fine-tune some processes and create new ones to handle the challenges the future will throw at us. Harkening back to Initiative 4, we will also need the right people in place to manage the processes and relationships involved.

The Relationship Management Process This is, in short, a process for establishing priorities and obtaining project approvals. It must be flexible enough to handle the scenarios described above and to work with the other processes you established to complement corporate strategies. And it must include mechanisms for handling fast, high-priority projects. If you look at AMD’s Relationship Management Process, you will find something we call “Quick Hitters.” This is designed to handle projects that can’t afford to be tied up in a lengthy bureaucratic process.

Download the "Relationship Managment Process"

Account Managers How does the rest of your organization interface with IT? It should go without saying that the helpdesk shouldn’t be your most visible line of communication. You need account managers to ensure the process works. They are responsible for communicating with and providing consulting services for each of the business units. They align technology solutions and business strategies and maintain and advance the strategic planning process. They should get to know the “customer,” and understand their needs. It’s an ongoing process. At AMD, the director of each one of my organizations is the account manager for an AMD business unit. And I’m the account manager for AMD’s Corporate Operating Committee.

Measuring progress and continuous improvement: The Sticky Note Count Over the years, I’ve acquired some rather unorthodox means of measuring progress and fine-tuning. Let’s say, for example, that we’ve just introduced a new payroll application. I’ll take a slow walk through the halls to visit end users and count the number of sticky notes I see around their monitors. If the users need notes that say things like “click on this and then open that,” we haven’t done a good job of training on the use of the new application. This will cause a domino effect in IT, beginning with the increased number of calls to the helpdesk. It’s a good indication that we still have progress to make in delivering “user-friendly” solutions.

Marketing the Value of IT At this point we'l touch on another of my recurring themes: Marketing the Value of IT. You will find that you must continually remind the rest of the corporation of your role, your limitations, and the value you can provide. Without ongoing effort, you will backslide on the progress made in the previous initiatives. This is a very crucial role in the Relationship Management Process, the next two initiatives, and your overall success.

Of course in these times, continued success is not guaranteed. The economy is still trying to recover and IT investment continues to lag. These challenges are so critical for IT that they warrant their own initiative. And that leads us to next monthIt's column:

Initiative 6: Provide Effective Services at Efficient Cost Levels.

Download Initiative #5 pdf