• what constitutes the RIGHT information and how this should be delivered;
• how to deliver information to the RIGHT person;
• how to deliver information at the RIGHT time;
• what constitutes a THRIVE decision.

All of this is supported by information on my website.

An in-house briefing is offered to assist your organization to internalize and apply the principles discussed in this article and its companions.

In 1981, having generated over 7,000 pages of laboratory data in my PhD research I purchased, with the help of my father, a complete computer installation comprising one of the first "Personal Computers" including letter quality printer and X-Y plotter to process this data.  In 1982 my father asked me to join his specialist investment consulting business and computerize it.

This was my first foray into the use of computers in business, although I had been using them in engineering since 1973.  I imported some of the first spreadsheet software from the USA and developed a suite of fundamental economic models that were much more sophisticated and more comprehensive than their manual predecessor, thus enabling us to run numerous scenarios.  I also taught myself to write business software using the "Basic" programming language with refinements, and wrote a database and reporting application that took the outputs of the spreadsheets and reported results against the latest share prices thus giving up-to-date earnings yield projections in presentation format.

In the first year of operation the South African Gold Mining industry was facing a change in its tax and lease regime and the exact changes were not known.  We ran numerous scenarios and set up models for all eventualities.  Literally within an hour of the new tax formulae being announced we published updated earnings estimates for all the major shares and faxed these reports through to our major clients.  Clients included the Gold Funds of Union Bank of Switzerland, Banque Louis Dreyfus and various major London, Glasgow, Johannesburg and New York Stock Brokers.

We were far ahead of our competitors with the result that our clients were able to make timeous investment and divestment decisions and thereby gain substantial financial benefit from our advice.

We continued to provide these reports weekly and at times more frequently for the next ten years until my father finally retired at the age of 80.  The end result was that, at the age of 70 and following a triple heart bypass my father was able to double his client base and create a revenue stream that lasted for ten years.  I also spent four years learning about economics and markets.

From this project I learned that accurate and reliable information, accurately and timeously presented using simple computer solutions, and which enabled high value business decisions, could add huge value. 

This lesson has remained with me ever since such that my core focus in all that I do in advising clients always relates to how to assist them to obtain maximum value from their business information systems.  This thinking is always focused on the principle:

"provide the RIGHT information to the RIGHT people, at the RIGHT time in order to enable THRIVE decisions"

The word "thrive" is derived from the work of Professor Malcolm McDonald who states that if an organization does the right things well, that organization will thrive.  This thinking is central to my consulting work, as exemplified by my logo, based on Malcolm's Strategy—Tactics Matrix.

This understanding is fundamental in diagnosing why most organizations are NOT getting the expected value from their Business Information and ERP Systems; AND with regard to what is required to unlock the full value of those investments.  All the information on my website is ultimately directed at achieving this one objective – enabling clients to get the right information to the right people at the right time in order to enable THRIVE decisions.

The balance of this article examines this principle in more detail.

What IS the "right information?"

The right information is whatever information I need right now to answer whatever question I have right now with regard to ANY aspect of my organization that has attracted my attention and where I can reasonably expect that information to be resident in my computerized business information systems.  In other words, ANY information of relevance!

The right information can take the form of routine analysis accurately and timeously presented in summarized form with the ability to immediately and without assistance drill down electronically to the detail.  It can also be more complex.

Fundamentally the RIGHT information includes strategic information that relates to the essence of the organization and how it thrives and this includes diverse measures relating to customers, products, etc -- which all inform strategic decision making.

Inherent in this requirement is a need for the data to be highly structured and classified in a manner that permits quick and concise analysis – my series of articles on "Strategically Enriching your Business Information Systems" is progressively unpacking this and the information in the "Configure " part of my website presents considerable information of relevance.

However, inherent in the "right information" is a more challenging requirement – "answers to the questions I have NOT yet thought to ask – NOW" – this sounds impossible, doesn't it?  Actually it is relatively easy with the right design approach – I plan to discuss this in a subsequent article.

This "RIGHT information" should be delivered to the executives, managers and supervisors and, in some cases, operational staff who need it to make the right decisions.

The key requirement is that the data and associated reports are highly structured in a manner that accurately models the governance of the business.

Central to meeting this requirement is what I term "The Cubic Business Model "© a logical model that defines the structure of the organization and from this the logic of the Chart of Accounts and every aspect of the integration and operation of every business system in the enterprise.  This model provides the logic which enables the Chief Executive to see the entire business in a highly summarized form and then drill down to the detail relevant to the domain of responsibility of every executive, manager or supervisor.  I also plan to discuss this in a subsequent article.

As I learned in the anecdote that I shared at the beginning of this article, timing of information delivery is critical.  The right information delivered too late for the best competitive or operational effectiveness decision to have maximum impact is close to useless.  This is a major weakness of most of the configurations that I have investigated.

A situation in which executives wait for 2 or 3 days or even weeks after month-end for consolidated analysis of corporate performance is unacceptable.  Even a delay of one day is unacceptable.  All core information should be available instantly with the exception of certain monthly accruals, such as depreciation, where a delay of a day or two may be acceptable depending on the nature of the business.  Very few organizations achieve this across the entire spectrum of data required for decision making.  They may get this right at the operational level but seldom achieve it at the executive strategic level.

Management Accountants, Cost Accountants and others laboring for days or weeks in spreadsheets and other add-on tools to produce reports with little or NO drill down capability is totally unacceptable.  The methods that I advocate with regard to "precision configuration " result in the required timeous delivery of information and are scheduled for discussion in subsequent articles.

A thrive decision is a decision that results in the organization doing the RIGHT things from the perspective of the customer or a decision that results in the organization doing things RIGHT from the perspective of the customer or, ideally, both -- refer McDonald .

This can relate to special software and information capabilities made possible by precision configuration -- see the ASCO Case Study for an example.  It can also relate simply to the ongoing smooth running of the organization, see the V3 and CRM Risk Control case studies.

At the end of the day the capability of a system to enable thrive decisions is the cumulative outworking of a wide diversity of factors.  This commences with understanding the strategic essence of the business, through a robust and effective procurement process, culminating in comprehensive precision configuration comprehensively tested in a business simulation laboratory .  This results in a commissioned system that is a precision strategic information delivery machine.  Everything else is second order -- although the "everything else" is the entire focus of most business information system implementers.

If you do NOT have the luxury of a new system implementation then these same techniques can be applied incrementally to existing systems to achieve the same overall result in time.

I have devoted many years of my life to understanding what is required to deliver the RIGHT information to the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time in order to enable THRIVE decisions and would welcome the opportunity to assist your organization to develop this capability.

For many years now I have been delivering a five hour executive briefing titled “Why your business information systems are NOT delivering and HOW to FIX them”

This briefing provides a consolidated view of the key issues with regard to business systems from an executive management perspective and presents the information that executives need in order to effectively manage their systems and gain maximum value from their investments

When presented in-house I like to calibrate the briefing to the exact circumstances of the client and I do this by way of a one hour interview with the Chief Executive and a one hour walk-through of existing systems the morning of the briefing

The briefing comprises:

1. Context and Definitions – a wide range of general principles with regard to the effective application of business information systems linking to fundamental business principles;

2. What are business information systems really? – a no nonsense, cut to the chase, discussion of the REAL characteristics of business information systems coupled to debunking of the myths that frequently result in executives being reluctant to get involved and being hijacked by technologists – I make considerable use of physical world examples to make my points;

3. Why business system implementations fail to deliver (the REAL issues) – 3% of non-performance is technical, the remaining issues are business, people, data and method related – this presentation makes the factors causing failure and sub-optimal outcomes explicit in a way that enables executives to effectively manage them

4. Precision configuration – the missing link in business information systems performance – discussion of little known factors that have a huge impact on sub-optimal business outcomes and which, if effectively addressed, have a huge impact on business value yield – if I have the opportunity to spend an hour with you and an hour with your systems I will inform this discussion with examples of real issues in your data, should they exist – in my experience they ALWAYS do;

5. How to fix it – discussion of the Critical Factors for success together with practical measures that delegates can apply immediately to improve the value yield of their existing investments;

6. Discussion – I will answer questions throughout the presentation and will also allow time for discussion at the end of the presentation in order to ensure that you and your team have practical answers that you can immediately apply.

The entire presentation is informed by practical examples from my experience with the application of computers in business over more than three decades.

As a special “get to know me” offer I would like to offer you the above as a one day on-site package delivered in your offices to a maximum of 20 delegates for £1,750 / €2,100 / US$2,700 excluding VAT, travel and accommodation outside of London, UK.

I am very confident that no matter where you are with your systems – frustrated with a new implementation that is not delivering, wondering whether to replace an elderly legacy system, embarking on new systems procurement or simply wanting to get more out of your existing systems, you will get value from this one day engagement – I will take your current circumstances into account in all that I present.

In the event that the personnel who will be attending the briefing are NOT comfortable with English we can arrange to translate the slides into the language of your choice and deliver the briefing through a translator.  Please contact me for applicable pricing.

Should you book this event and pay for it before 31 December 2014 I will give you a 20% discount on the above fee.

I would welcome the opportunity to connect with you by phone or Skype to discuss this further.

Yours faithfully,

Dr James Robertson
James A Robertson and Associates Limited
Assisting clients to thrive through effective and efficient application of Business Information Systems

Website  : http://www.James-A-Robertson-Associates.eu
Linked In : http://uk.linkedin.com/in/DrJamesARobertsonERPDoctor

James A Robertson and Associates offer a range of services directed at enabling clients to put in place comprehensive measures to achieve the level of system effectiveness and efficiency discussed above in such a way as to give lasting high value low life time operating cost outcomes

This includes a range of in-house presentations on topics such as "Why your Business Information System is NOT delivering and HOW to FIX it", "Business Information Systems in Strategic and Competitive Management", "The Critical Factors for Business Information System investment success" and "Lessons from the Bridgestone – IBM case documents".

All of these can be delivered as one hour presentations, half day executive briefings or two day courses.  They can also be presented in standard format or tailored to your organization through a series of executive interviews

I also offer short, sharp diagnostic interventions to determine why your business system, department or project is NOT delivering or is stalled, including easy to understand actionable advice on how to turn the situation around

I will give you an independent evaluation of the health of your existing systems and give guidance on whether they REALLY need to be replaced or not and, in many cases, advise how to greatly extend the life and sustainability of those systems

Please click here to email me for more information

A discussion of how strategic essence should inform ALL business improvement projects and particularly business information system projects.  This thread discusses the analysis of strategy, the planning of strategy and feeding strategy through into business system specifications and the management of business improvement projects.  Articles to date include:

Summary
1: Strategy Defined
2: Differentiation
3: The Essence IS Different
4: Strategic Essence is the Point of Departure
5: Determining Strategic Essence

A discussion as to why business information systems fail to deliver on expectations or fail outright.  Coupled to discussion of the Critical Factors that must be taken into account in order to achieve successful outcomes.  This thread is progressively discussing more hands-on specifics of achieving high value outcomes and builds on the Strategic Essence series.  Articles to date include:

1: Introduction
2: Mythology and Lack of Executive Custody
3: Lack of Strategic Alignment and Lack of Precision Configuration

Discussion of practical specific measures that can be taken in order to greatly improve the information yield of business information systems at both the operational and executive strategic level.  A number of simple steps that can be taken immediately and more complex measures that can be taken over time. 

This thread is discussing increasing business system and data warehouse value yield using techniques that lead to significantly improved business intelligence capability, including support for the ability to “obtain answers to questions we had not previously thought to ask ”.  This builds on the content in the Strategic Essence and Real Issues threads.  Articles to date include:

1: Introduction
2: Principles of Data Engineering
3: Steps in Applying these Recommendations

In order to fully apply the methods and principles discussed in the threads above with regard to new systems it is vital that a robust and effective approach to procurement is applied.  This requires a tough procurement approach directed at achieving a tough business outcome orientated project that ensures a high value outcome.

This thread discusses the components of such a procurement approach.  The individual documents and processes that make up the approach are outlined.  Thereafter the components are discussed in more detail.  Articles to date include:

1: Introduction
2: Bill of Services, Laboratory, Go-live Certificate, etc
3: Executive Engagement, Bid Compliance, Adjudication and other matters

Comment on some of the dramatic business information system investment failures of recent years.  Articles to date include:

1: The BBC Digital Media Initiative £100 million write-off
2: Bridgestone versus IBM -- The REAL Issues – Overview
3: Bridgestone versus IBM Part 2 – Governance and Procurement

A series of articles on important principles that you can use to better understand the health of your business information systems and how to improve their strategic and operational value yield to your organization.  Articles to date include:

1: How do you recognize a HIGH VALUE Business Information System Solution?
2: Business System Failure – HOW do you recognize it?

Please browse my website for more information

The home page, http://www.James-A-Robertson-and-Associates.eu will give you a good overview of what I am advocating and help you to navigate the entire site.

The Table of Contents lists all the webpages on the site, there is a lot of deep content that is NOT immediately visible.

The Article Catalogue contains well over 150 articles on diverse topics.

The Article Keyword Cloud provides alphabetic keywords linking to many of the articles

The Conference page lists around 90 conference presentations, nearly all different with around 40 of the presentations live on the site for you to view and download -- email me if there is a presentation you would like to view that is not on the site.

If you would like to know more about me there is detailed information on the website and further detailed information on LinkedIn

Visit the Testimonials page to hear and read what clients and others have to say about me

Visit the Failure Catalogue to get a realistic perspective of the severity of the problems with the business information systems implementation industry.  There is also a description of what I mean by the word Failure in this context

The page on The Critical Human Foundation will give you some idea of the full diversity of the matters that I take into account in advising my clients

I look forward to discussing how I can assist you to unlock the FULL value of your Business Information Systems investment, no matter which software you have, how old it is or how dissatisfied you are with it

Email addressed to !*EMAIL*!