IT managers, CIOs, CTOs and others make
technology decisions about a wide variety of solutions that impact how we
work: email, archiving, encryption,
collaboration, managed file transfer, Web 2.0 applications and so forth. Decision makers take into account the
features and functions these systems will provide, how they will mitigate risk,
how they will boost productivity or how they will boost revenue.
However, I believe that a key missing
element in the analysis of what will work and how much it will cost is how (or
even if) it will be used. This is simply
because a key determinant in the success of many technology solutions is the
existing culture of the corporate environment.
For example:
- If you deploy a corporate collaboration
system based on social networking that allows employees to share information
through Twitter-like capabilities, blogging and the like, but your corporate
culture rewards employees for hoarding information, the collaboration system
will have little impact and might actually be resented by some.
- If you deploy easy-to-use, manual
encryption capabilities for your employees, but do not make it easy for your
employees’ recipients to receive and open encrypted emails, few will send
encrypted communications.
- If you want to alleviate the burden of
large attachments sent through email and improve the security of your content
by deploying a managed file transfer system, it will be necessary to make this
system about as easy to use as email.
However, if a file transfer system is cumbersome and disruptive to
normal workflows, it simply won’t be used.
The key, therefore, is to examine
technology solutions in light of the existing corporate culture to see what
will be used and what employees will simply ignore. Corporate edicts of “thou shalt use” the new
technology are unlikely to work – employees will typically find workarounds
that will negate the value of the investment in the new technology. Instead, corporate culture should be the
first thing that decision makers review in light of a) the current state of the
culture and b) where they might like it to be.
For example, if productivity and the bottom line will be improved by employees
sharing information, they must first develop a corporate culture that rewards
people for sharing information, working in teams, developing communities of
content sharing and the like – and then deploy solutions that will enable that
to happen.
Deploying technology first and hoping
corporate culture catches up rarely works.
OR
Commentary for Messaging Wire
Week of February 8, 2010