Systems Intelligence in business organisations ? Merja Fischer Spring 2004

Why some projects/companies succeed and other’s don’t ? I will give some answers to the following questions: –Can we explain the success of some initiatives in business organisations with the existence of systems intelligent behaviour ? –is it possible to describe systems intelligent behaviour with practical examples ? –What can be seen as enablers and what prohibits the use of systems intelligence in business environment ?

Areas where SI has been proven to be successful –Transition from functional organisation to process thinking (example 1) understanding one’s role in the chain and it’s impact to other people’s job in the same chain and to the overall deliverables –in business projects cross functional, cross business teams to share their viewpoints on the common target –integrating different business units (example 2) understanding each other’s requirements and reasoning for the needed information or level of support communication of roles and responsibilities in decision making process…building bridge between different departments.

Enablers and barriers.. Enablers –Open culture –help people to understand the big picture, why we are here for = share the vision –help people to understand what is my role in the system and my impact on other people’s performance –Teams, where individual excellence is allowed –Interactions with people is promoted –People have possibility to present their view point or perspective

Enablers and barriers… What “prohibits” us to implement SI –tight organisational barriers –focused incentive system –authoritarian culture –intolerant atmosphere –error-making is not accepted

What is needed ? Promoters: We need people in the organisations to promote systems intelligent thinking through their own appearance We need success stories to proven by results, that SI did make a difference. Micro changes: The experience is, that micro changes can generate a major change in the system.

7 Transition from functional to process thinking: The challenge: To ensure that people understand the big picture and their own role in that To manage organizational expectations Introduction of new processes New roles and job descriptions Change functional thinking to process thinking Develop new competencies and skills Functional orientation Process orientation Example 1.

x = where the error will impact

Interviews – Expectations from Business and Finance  How is the processes allocated between support function and business?  What processes would you like to improve ?  What kind of criteria would you use for decision making regarding to shared services ?  How could finance better support your strategic decision making ?  How could finance function better support businesses in the future ?  What kind of changes do you see in the role of Business controller in the future ?  What kind of benefits there might be or could be gained with business support unit ?  What kind of risks or threats do you see in the shared services model ?  What kind of special needs or expectations your business unit would have towards Business Support Unit ? Example 2.

Working step-by-step to communicate and agree different roles in the process: responsible, participating, informed … Example 2.

External efficiency vs. internal capability… Companies are used to building interaction with their customers and suppliers, but why not internally ? How can we assume, that we could perform sufficiently in our external relationships if our internal systems are not working….?

Can we measure SI impact ? Questionnaires about each other’s performance Customer satisfaction, supplier satisfaction surveys as templates for internal use Service level agreements (BU-support function) Dr. Feelgood…collect motivation curve information