Mastering the Three Worlds of Information

"Mastering the Three Worlds of Information" artigo de Andrew McAfee publicado na revista Harvard Business Review de Novembro de 2006.

Este interessante artigo discute o papel dos executivos das empresas na gestão das Tecnologias de Informação.

"[...] executives have three roles to play in managing IT: They must help select technologies, nurture their adoption, and ensure their exploitation. However, managers needn’t do all those things each time they buy a new technology. Different types of IT result in different kinds of organizational change when they are implemented, so executives must tailor their roles to the technologies they’re using. What’s critical, though, is that executives stop looking at IT projects as technology installations and start looking at them as periods of organizational change that they have a responsibility to manage.
[...]
An insightful CIO once told me, 'I can make a project fail, but I can’t make it succeed. For that, I need my [non-IT] business colleagues.'"

Divide as TIs em 3 categorias:

"Executives often talk about the revolution that computers have brought about in
companies, but, as the IT model I’ve described illustrates, that’s an oversimplification. IT sets off several kinds of revolutions in organizations because technologies fall into three distinct categories.
Function IT. (FIT) includes technologies that make the execution of stand-alone tasks more efficient. Word processors and spreadsheets are the most common examples of this IT category. Design engineers, accountants, doctors, graphic artists, and a host of other specialists and knowledge workers use FIT all the time. People can get the most value from these technologies when their complements are in place but can also use FIT without all of the complements.[...]
Network IT. (NIT) provides a means by which people can communicate with one another. Network technologies include e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, and groupware like Lotus Notes. NIT allows people to interact, but it doesn’t define how they should interact. It gives people freedom to experiment instead of telling them what they must do. Unlike FIT, network IT brings complements with it but allows users to implement and modify them over time.[...]
Enterprise IT. (EIT) is the type of IT application that companies adopt to restructure interactions among groups of employees or with business partners. Applications that define entire business processes, such as CRM and SCM—as well as technologies, such as electronic data interchange, that automate communications between companies—fall into this category. Unlike network technologies, which percolate from the bottom, enterprise technologies are very much top-down; they are purchased and imposed on organizations by senior management. Companies can’t adopt EIT without introducing new interdependencies, processes, and decision rights. Moreover, companies can’t slowly create the complements to EIT; changes become necessary as soon as the new systems go live."

Aborda ainda as temáticas da selecção, adopção e exploração de soluções de TI.

Selecção:
"An inside-out approach puts the spotlight squarely on the business before evaluating the technology landscape; it focuses on the capabilities that IT can provide rather than on the technologies themselves. A discussion among executives about capabilities will highlight what the business most wants to be good at—and it will show whether there’s agreement about what the business needs to be good at. Once the company’s business needs are clear, the technologies it requires will come into focus. Typically, FIT delivers productivity and optimization, NIT increases collaboration, and EIT helps standardize and monitor work. Thus, when executives decide what capabilities they need, they will know what kind of IT to buy and the nature of the initiatives they must manage."

Adopção:
"After IT selection, executives’ attention turns to adoption: the hard work of
putting the technologies they’ve invested in to productive use.[...]
IT adoption. After IT selection, executives’ attention turns to adoption: the hard work of putting the technologies they’ve invested in to productive use.[...]
In fact, the biggest mistake business leaders make is to underestimate resistance when they impose changes in the ways people work.[...]
Leaders who successfully implement EIT try to build consensus in the organization, but they’re also willing to push ahead without having everyone on board every step of the way."

Exploração:
"A business leader’s third IT-related responsibility is to extract the maximum benefit from technologies once they are in place."