Connecting the dots : Slowdown, SOA and Sourcing
It doesn’t require an industry analyst to tell us that there are multiple trends shaping up in the business-technology landscape; and some of these don't seem to have much correlation to others. If one pays any attention to business or technology media, one would get a feeling that everything seems to be correlated to the downturn or slowdown. let’s take the following examples:
- Executives at some firms, reading the tea-leaves about the impending slowdown are digging their heels deeper and taking a closer look at their spending, expenses and sometimes key initiatives that could be making them competitive.
- Some Business Integration initiatives that were started with much fanfare last year are getting a second look before they can be rolled out. This includes key SOA initiatives, which I had blogged about a while ago
- Offshoring will continue to remain on corporate radar screens as a means to derive efficiencies by leveraging global talent
Though there may not be a direct correlation between the three trends, one can connect the dots.
The first 'trend' is more of a common knee-jerk reaction to macroeconomic trends in the landscape but goes against advice from management experts. Case in point, Ram Charan, the management guru, in his recent Fortune magazine writeup advices “Don't expect the good times to roll for quite some time... But smart executives can use the downturn to make their companies better, stronger, and faster” [Managing your business in a downturn]
Among his key advices to corporate executives: Keep building. Ram Charan says “When the top line looks shaky and the bottom line worse, the temptation is to go after discretionary spending. Fine - but do not consider product development, innovation, and brand building optional. Sacrificing your future for a slightly more comfortable present is not worth it. If you keep building, you can come back strong.”
Most technology leaders will intuitively equate the advice to “keep building” to apply to their SOA initiatives, that adopt modular solutions with smaller investments, with faster time to market. While technology leaders recognize the need to “keep building,” they may also be getting the message to lower operational costs and in some cases be already leveraging offshored IT services. Given this scenario, it shouldn’t be hard to build a business case to continue with key integration and SOA initiatives.
Before you pick holes through my line of thinking, I am not advocating that executives pick up slack on SOA and integration initiatives during a downturn without due diligence. This being a blog entry, it is hard for me to pick on more specifics on building a business case. In case you are looking for specific steps involved in strengthening your business case which may require an analysis of your scenario and specific drivers, you could ping me offline.
