High Performance Management: Using people to realize the benefits of technology
Eric Kimberling
SchlumbergerSema
6399 South Fiddler’s Green Circle
Englewood, Colorado 80111
Abstract
In today’s deregulating and increasingly competitive business environment, significant
investment in Information Technology (IT) is becoming an important source of competitive
advantage and operational efficiency. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), work
management, Mobile Workforce Management (MWM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
systems are all technologies that can potentially enable dramatic improvements in an
organization’s efficiency. However, despite the IT benefit appeal, utility managers need to
understand the primary drivers of technology benefits realization and avoid the obstacles to full
benefit achievement. By leveraging a person’s full potential within an organization, IT and
corporate managers will be able to maximize the potential benefits of any particular system. This
paper discusses the obstacles and drivers of technology benefits realization and focuses on how
managers can manage their people to exploit the IT potential. In particular, this paper outlines
the obstacles to technology benefits realization and the “levers” managers can use to realize IT
benefits using their existing people and organizations. In addition, the paper outlines specific
tools and approaches for leveraging the possibilities of technology, including performance
measurement, organizational design, process improvement, training, and communications. Only
by understanding these concepts and tools will managers be able to drive their organizations to
high performance.
The Need for Benefits Realization
There are a number of reasons that utilities implement cutting-edge technologies as part of their
IT strategies. Cost pressures, organizational inefficiencies, and hype are all common catalysts for
the introduction of new technologies such as GIS, work management, ERP, and Outage
Management Systems (OMS). However, despite the compelling reasons for information
technology, many companies fail to realize the full benefit of these technologies. According to
Gartner Group, 27 percent of organizations are not able to or have not tried to measure the
benefits of technology. In addition, another 64 percent of companies have only realized “some”
benefits that are possible through the use of technology. Similarly, Information Week recently
found that through the end of 2002, only 25 percent of IT projects will have delivered hard
monetary benefits.
Given the millions of dollars that many utilities spend on IT projects annually, these figures can
be disturbing to management and shareholders. To many CFOs and other utility managers, it is
difficult to fathom the thought of a $5 million to $40 million-plus IT investment without knowing what the exact benefits payback will be. Many utilities develop business cases to justify
IT investments to gain budgetary approval, but very rarely is any type of follow-up analysis done
to determine what the actual benefits of the implemented technologies are. While many IT
projects are positioned to deliver nonquantifiable strategic benefits, it is difficult to justify
current and future IT spending without a more disciplined approach to such investment
decisions. Clearly, there are a number of compelling reasons to incorporate a benefits realization
approach into any IT implementation project. This type of approach addresses the
above-mentioned difficulties in measuring and understanding the actual benefits of information
technology.
