How to Optimally Align IT with Your Business Processes?

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |IT architecture|How to Optimally Align IT with Your Business Processes?IT is an important subject for any organization and it becomes increasingly interwoven with business operations. The information should be accessible for any relevant person and it should be structured logically, so that everyone in an organization relies on the same, up-to-date information and is able to use it efficiently. Structuring business information is also referred to as enterprise architecture.

How Does Enterprise Architecture Add Value?

IT should be connected to a functional process in the organization. This is necessary for organizations to be efficient and for IT to generate value. The market a company operates in should also be taken into account for enterprise architecture.

In order for enterprise architecture to be effective, a company must be agile. The word “agile” is popular in the business world and it is bandied about frequently. However, agility is crucial in this article; it does not appear in this context, because it sounds interesting. To illustrate, enterprise architecture tools provide an opportunity to respond to inefficient and ineffective situations, but organizations must be able to benefit from these opportunities, before the relevance of an action has already passed.

For the IT architecture to be effective, it should be between centralized and decentralized. The enterprise architecture should manage changes in the architecture, but input by other employees should be appreciated. As a result, opportunities in the environment can be consumed.

Architectural centralization requires sharing knowledge, uniformity and standardization. Because randomly sharing knowledge could result in organizational chaos, it should be accompanied by the other two requirements (uniformity and standardization). Standardization of enterprise architecture can involve the process level, IT level and data level. In this, IT can be considered the bridge between data and process.

Balance between Centralization and Decentralization

To apply and appropriate balance between centralization and decentralization, the information pyramid can be implemented. This approach is developed by Aloys Kregting, who was entitled as CIO of the year twice. The pyramid presents questions that arise when changes in the architecture are proposed. The bottom layer represents requirements that must be met for the idea to be implemented.

The bottom layer of the pyramid is related to governance and involves leadership and organizational structures that are fundamental for the attainment of primary organizational goals. The second layer concerns the roles of employees and the behavioral adaptations that are necessary for the proposed architectural change. The subsequent layer represents data matters, such as key performance indicators. In the top layer Kregting referred to IT systems by which employees are supported. A proposal for change should correspond with the primary organizational objectives. If a requirement relates to one of the higher levels, without meeting a lower level, the implementation of the architectural change is suboptimal.

Two Views on IT

Gartner, a consultancy company, initiated the distinction between two modes of IT. The first mode concerns security and accuracy, whereas the second mode concerns innovation, which is less structured. Additionally, mode 2 requires agility. Mode 1 is related to non-distinctive IT: products and services are not directly influenced by it. And example of a mode 2 process is employee skills management. In mode 2, IT is part of products and services and serves as a competitive weapon. For instance, the customer journey could be a mode-2 aspect.

The Importance of Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture provides guidance for organizations. It could be part of strategy, tactics and operations. Especially for IT companies, it can be effective to apply the bimodal view. Every action should add value to the business.

In conclusion, IT architecture should allow members of an organization to process information and contribute to the architecture, applications and processes. Information should be available to individuals in the organization to whom it is relevant. Also, organizations should distinguish between the two modes of IT. If these recommendations are executed, organizations will reap the benefits of enterprise architecture.

About the Author

Rianne Koopmans is a graduate in International Business Administration. In 2019 she will start her Master’s program in Digital Business. Currently, she is working as an online marketeer and is predominantly occupied with link building and web development.

Tactical Execution Best Practice 1 – Priority System Alignment with Mission Goals

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Best Practice Article | priority system alignmentSeldom do leaders assign work to individuals based on the corporate goal of achieving something.

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The Importance of Business Intelligence Software and Why It’s Integral for Business Success

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article | The Importance of Business Intelligence Software and Why It’s Integral for Business SuccessIn the digital-first, customer-centric world we live in today, managers and business owners must deal with information overload. That is the reason why they are always looking for ways to derive greater intelligence, control, and understanding from their data. Adopting a business intelligence (BI) strategy is one of the best ways to deal with this problem, but most organizations have been slow to integrate it within their business systems. This is mainly down to a lack of knowledge, as businesses still don’t know, where to start, what it involves, and how long it’ll take for them to see any benefits.

There’s no denying that business intelligence software is crucial in helping organizations make reliable and timely decisions about their operations. It ensures that the business can access reliable information and make insightful decisions by reacting in real time. Business intelligence software has played a major role in helping organizations meet their challenges like narrowing margins, high customer expectations, and global competition.

Most businesses are still using traditional methods, which makes it harder for them to make decisions, as the information is stored in separate applications and databases. How quickly and accurately a company responds in this technology-driven competitive market is the main difference between success and failure. Business intelligence technologies have several functions that improve their performance, and one of them is reporting. It plays a key role in business intelligence, as it allows the decision makers of the enterprise to support their work. The discovery of essential data patterns (analytics) is also done through reporting, which is another key role of business intelligence.

Some of the standard functions of business intelligence technologies include predictive and prescriptive analysis, business performance management, text mining, benchmarking, and online analytic processing. Business intelligence refers to the application, tools, and good practices that are used to access and analyze data to optimize or improve the performance of the business. It converts raw data into relevant information that enables tactical and strategic insights to make effective decisions.

Business intelligence software is a technological process, which collects and processes data to attain actionable information. It allows users to acquire information quickly and transfer them to the proper personnel to make the right decision. Business intelligence tools have been around for a long time, but it was only accessible to large enterprise, who had the infrastructure and resources to implement this technology.

However, thanks to the advancement of technology, even small enterprises now can access business intelligence software through cloud computing.

The Main Benefits of Business Intelligence Software

Any organization that wants to remain relevant in the competitive market of today must adapt fast and real-time integration of business intelligence software. Most organizations today have changed their modes of operation so they can adapt to modern business intelligence technologies. However, there are still plenty of organizations that are under the assumption that business intelligence software isn’t user-friendly and is complicated.

That’s a misconception about business intelligence software since it is user-friendly and can be adopted quickly by an organization, while it ensures maximum profitability by smoothing the decision-making process. Businesses that have adopted this technology in their systems are thriving in all the challenges they are facing at any stage of their projects. Business intelligence software also allows small and medium-sized enterprises to reduce their cost of operations by identifying areas that have higher costs of expenses and finding measures to reduce them.

The best thing about business intelligence software is that it allows businesses to have agile operations and is often the difference between operating on profits or losses. To give you a better idea, we are going to discuss some of the main benefits offered by business intelligence software:

1. Better Business Decisions

When a business adopts business intelligence software, its management can easily identify all the financial and customer data, production data, current data, and business aspects of the organization. This information will allow the management to synthesize and analyze the products and investment reports, which will help them make better business decisions that benefit the organization.

2. Enables Faster and Accurate Planning, Reporting, and Analysis

Business intelligence software offers real-time information, which helps it provide accurate reporting solutions as it can connect with an extensive range of data. The software can plan and analyze informed business solutions, which reduce potential risks and allow a business to achieve faster growth. Not only that, software solutions like Conexiom can import unstructured data from multiple sources into your system of records streamlining your workflow and improving efficiency. 

3. Enhanced Speed of Decision-Making

Business intelligence software not only helps businesses make better decisions but also helps increase their decision-making speed as well. Without business intelligence software, an organization will be spending a lot of time implementing decisions, since they’ll need to cover business aspects one by one before making any decision. This is a time-consuming process, and with business intelligence software you cut down on the speed of decision-making.

4. Increased Business User Satisfaction

There is increased user satisfaction for the software because business intelligence offers better decision-making, reporting, and accurate analysis. It helps the business maximize its limited resources by using cost-effective solutions that allow business growth and enhance user satisfaction.

5. Customer Behavior Insights

Business intelligence software holds the key for identifying customer behavior patterns, as it determines customer responses and helps the business achieve market profitability by helping it retain customers and attract new clients.

6. Accurate Decision-Making

The best part about the business intelligence software is that it not only allows real-time decision-making but also enables accurate decisions to be made that will benefit the business. For instance, if your competitor decides to reduce the prices of their products, you’ll need to come up with a counter price for your product that is lower or similar. This decision will take some time to be implemented, as you’ll need to determine the impact of your profits after the price reduction. However, when you’re using business intelligence software, you get rapid and informed decisions that allow your business to stay on top of its game.

7. Increased Collaboration between Business & IT Units

Business intelligence software and systems have enabled growth collaborations between IT and business units. Any organization that aims to grow its operation must ensure that its business and IT units are working together, and this can be achieved easily with business intelligence software.

8. Offer Personalized Services

Business intelligence software is user-friendly and comes with a feature that personalizes information or data by making it easier to use and understand. The feature also ensures smoother collaboration between users in the organization and ensures a smoother transfer of data.

9. Track KPIs with Notifications and Alerts

The business intelligence software tracks the KPI by evaluating the current status and metric value against a target using specific measures that will send alerts to the user. These notifications allow users to come up with the right solutions or measures.

10. Identify Opportunities for Revenue

Revenue growth is essential to all organizations, and it is one of the main purposes of business intelligence software. Finding new revenue opportunities opens new doors for business and allows it to thrive and transform its operations. The software analyzes marketing strategies and campaigns to create important reports and insights on the best sources of high returns on investment.

11. Reduced Cost

Enterprises that struggle to sort out their financial statements are going to struggle in the long-run, and that is where business intelligence software plays such a major role. It helps find areas where the organization can cut down its costs, and the software helps to collect raw data on areas where there are high expenses and provides solutions to bring them down.

12. Better Operational Efficiency

Every business is striving to improve its operations, as it helps them take the next step in their development. However, to do that, businesses must monitor and measure their performance, and business intelligence software helps businesses come up with different activities that help drive business success. The software covers highly used metrics like productivity, performance, and employee satisfaction to ensure better operations in the organization.

13. Higher Quality Data

Data comes in all shapes and sizes, and some can be more complicated to understand and operate, which makes it difficult for organizations to take advantage of data-driven insights. There is a data visualization tool in business intelligence software, which allows for easier recognition of data. This feature is incredibly useful since it allows data to be converted into a better method or quality, which can be easily accessed.

14. Create a Data Culture in the Organization

A lot of organizations are guilty of data clustering, which leads to data manipulation and data loss. Business intelligence software is extremely useful when it comes to handling the data of a business since it allows easy collaboration and communications among members whenever data is updated. Users can also track data and its changes since notifications are sent to everyone.

15. Self-Service Culture

One of the biggest things about business intelligence software is that it promotes a culture of self-service in the business. Users can easily access data and easily manage it even if they aren’t familiar with the statistical analytics. Adding, creating, and manipulating data is easy, and this ensures cooperation between the different departments in the business.

How to Successfully Manage Your Business’s Fleet

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Fleet Management|How to Successfully Manage Your Business's FleetIf your business has a fleet of vehicles, it’s vital to manage them properly. These are valuable resources and your staff probably rely on them on a day to day basis. Your fleet of vehicles has to be cared for properly and monitored to ensure they’re being used in the right way. If you’re currently struggling to manage your fleet effectively and efficiently, read on and learn about how you can manage it successfully.

Set Rules and Policies for Staff to Follow

The staff member who are going to be using the vehicles on a day to day basis need to know how to use them and how not to. But that’ll only be the case if there’s a specific set of rules and policies in place for them to follow. Be clear about what these are so everyone knows what’s expected of that. The policies should outline what the vehicles are for and which restrictions apply to drivers.

Search for the Best Fleet Insurance

It’s vital that you have fleet insurance in place before you start using these vehicles. Taking uninsured cars on the road is a major problem and it’s something that could land your business in a lot of hot water. As the owner of the business and its vehicles, it’s up to you to ensure the insurance is in place. No one else is obligated to do this for you.

Find Mechanics You Trust

It’s vital to have a team of mechanics working for your business who you believe you can trust. These are the people who your business will turn to when something goes wrong with a vehicle in your fleet. You want to know that they’ll be there to professional assist you in a fast and efficient way. It’s worth doing some research and deciding which ones you want to put your trust in though.

Use New Analysis Tools

There are tools that allow you to gain insight into how your vehicles are being used. You can find ways to increase productivity by using these tools, such as fleet telematics. You’ll learn a lot and find new ways in which you can improve things going forward based on the findings of the analytics tools. The more insight you can get into how your businesses is using its vehicles, the better it is for you.

Ensure the Purpose of the Fleet Remains Clear

Finally, you should make it clear what your vehicles are far and what you want them to achieve. This applies on a functional level, of course, but it’s also more than that. You need to also think about the extra benefits your fleet can bring, such as raising brand awareness in the local area.

Managing a fleet of vehicles is an important task, and if your business relies on its fleet, it’s vital to ensure it’s managed properly. If it’s not, your business could be severely limited and damaged in its day to day operations. Keep in mind the advice listed above and demand the highest standards.

Singapore’s Employment Pass – How Difficult It Is to Get One

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Work Visa|Singapore's Employment Pass - How Difficult It Is to Get OneAre you planning to work in Singapore? If so, you will need an employment pass that corresponds to your skills and qualifications or the job you are interested in. Although Singapore has tried to make it a straightforward process, some people still find it a hassle. So, it is good to know how difficult it is to get an employment pass.

The truth is that the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore does not approve all of the applications. So, it is up to you and your agent to make a compelling application. Usually, the credibility of the hiring company and the individual will play a significant role.

Important Things During the Application

The MOM will factor many things before they approve your application. They may look simple, but they have a considerable amount of weight in making your endeavors a success.
They primarily look at the following:

  • Work skills and experience.
  • Personal details: citizenship, age, education, and current salary.
  • Whether or not it is possible to get local manpower under the same category.
  • The reputation of the company that is willing to hire you.
  • Your criminal records.

There are many other details that must be filled out in the application form. A reputable migration agent like Visa Express Singapore should help you fill out the application form honestly. What they should do is ensure that you qualify to avoid disappointments when feedback is given. If all is well, there is no need to get worried as the MOM will make a fair consideration.

Things That Will Make Your Application Get Rejected

There are many things that can make the application get rejected. Some may not be within your control. If the MOM has already processed enough EP passes, they might reject any other applications that are put on their table. This is a regulation that allows the locals to get a fair share of the jobs in Singapore. However, opening for foreigners are almost always there since more businesses and companies keep on opening. Also, there is a need for more labor that must be sourced from abroad.

Making an application without the right qualifications may lead to the rejection of the application. If the agent is proactive, they should help you to downgrade to the S pass if that is what you are eligible for. The good news is that you can grow your career by going back to school in Singapore and later upgrading to the EP.

How Agents Help in the Success of EP

From the beginning, it is highly recommended to use agents with enough experience in dealing with work visas in Singapore. You can easily find one online if you check well. Their job is to assess the possibility of succeeding in this application. It is crucial that they go through the form before they submit it on your behalf. They also check whether or not all of the supportive documents are attached before sending it.

If there is a rejection, they will go through it to ascertain what the problem was. In some cases, they can lodge a complaint with the MOM, especially if they feel that you should have qualified.