While doing bank management consulting I learned a lot about IT, as in how not to do it.  The classic and traditional way to measure an IT project is if it met the deadline.  Revenue targets and bonuses were on the line to meet the date.  A well-calculated project plan was always in place to be sure that revenue would be booked timely.  One aggravation was that to meet the schedule improvements were always by-passed.  No one redesigned anything, there was no time.  No time for collaboration, no time for learning the “what and why” of performance . . . the schedule was what determined success or failure.

The problem with that approach was that the fallout was great, lots of bugs and dissatisfaction from customers.  It was always strange how the customer would just negotiate a lower price vs. trying to fix the partnership.  To me it was such a wasteful process that took place for both sides.

There are better approaches to IT.  The better way is to understand the “what and why” of current performance and improve by turning the IT off or treating it as a constraint.  This way a service organization can redesign workflow, roles, measurements, etc and then “pull” technology if it will help the process. 

The new measures are measures not of project completion deadlines, but how well the system (technology, structure, measures, work design procedures, etc.) end-to-end serves the customer.  We have found that serving the customer always lowers costs and improves customer satisfaction.  Most banks serve the IT vendor and their calendar which has always made little sense.  One of several reasons to not like an IT outsourcing strategy.

Banks and other service organizations can no longer afford to blindly spend money on IT that entraps and never reaches an ROI.  With CRM, BI and BPM being tossed about as the new best thing you may want to exercise caution before jumping into the fray.  I rarely find these to be good investments for service organizations.  The movement from the “IT date complete scorecard” to a “customer scorecard” will serve you much better in the long run.  But to achieve this you will need to think differently and discover a better systems thinking way.

Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public).  His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work.  Download free from www.newsystemsthinking.com “Understanding Your Organization as a System” and gain knowledge of systems thinking or contact us about our intervention services at info@newsystemsthinking.com.  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbitt or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.