At some point, the "e" is going to fall off e-business, and it's just going to be business as usual. Just when this will happen is anybody's guess. Not next week certainly, but probably several months (as opposed to several years) from now.

There is evidence that we are getting closer to the day when we will officially retire the "e" in e-business. For one thing, business leaders -- not IS leaders -- are driving the bulk of e-business initiatives now. In the early days of e-business, you'll recall, there was a lot of confusion about whether business or IS should be in the driver's seat when it came to e-business. By now most companies I've talked to have worked out that issue, and the business side is firmly positioned as the captain of the e-business ship.

Another sign that e-business is going mainstream is the dissolution of e-business committees. These entities, which were extremely popular in the early days of e-business, are no longer the driving forces behind e-business decisions in most companies. Increasingly, the top executive or the head of a business unit calls the shots on e-business projects. In short, e-business decisions are now seen as a primary responsibility of the same individuals who have overall responsibility for the success of the division or enterprise. As a by-product, the need to reach e-business decisions by consensus has diminished, as has the tendency for e-business leaders to want to spread the professional risk around.

Finally, fewer and fewer organizations have separate groups or divisions to manage e-business. I talked to a company last week that is dealing with the organizational impact of melding its traditional IS group with what used to be its stand-alone e-business division. The company determined that for many e-business functions, it no longer made sense to have both a core IS group and a separate e-business group. Now, the company is sorting through what functions can be centralized, which individuals should take responsibility for key areas, and what to do about the people seemingly left out in the cold.

This is all very interesting, but other than the semantics, why should we care whether we have e-business or just business?

The widespread acceptance of e-business as the primary way we do business will have significant implications for IS organizations. For one thing, IS will have to know a lot more about the business in which it operates to do its job well. Providing strategic advice about which technologies to exploit and which vendors to choose will require that IS organizations have a clear understanding of the most pressing business issues, drivers, and competitive factors.

Tactical issues, such as procuring PCs, supporting end-users, and managing hardware and software assets, will still be part of IS's job (although those decisions will often be made at the business-unit level). Increasingly the focus of the IS organization will be on building an architecture that will support the new business model, help the company's top executives prioritize technology adoption, and assist in re-engineering the business. Virtually every large-scale IS project will require the organization to rework its business processes and possibly those of its customers and suppliers. These kinds of initiatives smack of a level of cross-functional coordination that we have not seen often in IS.

Another key change we'll see when e-business becomes business-as-usual is that alignment between IS and business will become even more important. Many IS groups will adopt a service-based organizational model in which the IS group is structured by the services it delivers, rather than by the specific function it performs. Those that don't figure out a way to get in sync with the business will be at high risk for obsolescence (read: outsourcing). So we will start to see more competency centers or groups within IS organized around topics such as customer retention, business continuance, and risk management. Financial management and marketing skills will become more prized as IS organizations adopt an external service provider mentality.

I don't mean to imply that when e-business goes mainstream it will be a bad day for IS. It doesn't have to be. It will require some fundamental changes in the approach to delivering IT services. It will certainly mean an organizational shake-up for many. It will also require a much closer alignment --really a fusing -- of IS and business planning. Not all IS organizations are ready for the shift, but some have been waiting a long time for the opportunity.

» posted by abennett

InfoWorld

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