“On-Demand” Thinking: What is it? By Duane Truex (from “Self-fulfilling prophecy” By Mark Brunelli, Site Editor “Mash-ups” form Richard Welke, 2010

‘On-demand’ Computing defined often referred to as ‘utility computing’ the process by which companies pay as they go for hardware and software as capacity requirements change. an integral part of IBM's strategy It is a strategy intended to deliver computing resources the way a power utility doles out electricity. When a network has a surge in demand, intuitive architecture triggers other resources into action, including idle servers, applications or pools of network storage. Companies pay only for the amount of time they use the services.

The ‘on-demand’ concept goes much further It looks at how organizations can align key business processes internally and externally with partners to eliminate red tape and save time and money. It is a process-oriented, process-co-design concept

According to IBM CEO Sam Palmisano an on-demand organization has its business processes integrated end-to-end across the company with key partners, suppliers and customers, so that it can respond with speed to any customer demand, opportunity or threat.

critics say… that IBM has gotten too far ahead of itself by rolling out an all-encompassing and extremely confusing concept for the future that most people have yet to grasp.

Advocates say of the critics… Their view is simply another manifestation of impatience. [of IBM] It is the job of a visionary to shake things up, to look at the way things are and to find a better way, to be a few steps ahead of everyone else. It takes time for their vision to trickle down through the rest of society, but it happens.

“Tech-Target” online suggests that… Concepts such as grid computing, utility computing, autonomic computing, and adaptive management seem very similar to the concept of on-demand computing. Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst with ZapThink, says that “on-demand computing is a broad category that includes all the other terms, each of which means something slightly different.” Utility computing, for example, is an on-demand approach that combines outsourced computing resources and infrastructure management with a usage-based payment structure (this approach is sometimes known as metered services). (Dec 6th 2011)

How about ‘clouds’ and ‘services’? Typically it is an enterprise-level computing model in which the technology and computing resources are allocated to the organization and its individual users on an as-needed basis. computing resources such as CPU cycles, bandwidth availability, storage and applications can be channeled to users based on the tasks they are performing at specified times. If one group of users is working with bandwidth-heavy applications, for instance, the bandwidth can be allocated specifically to them and diverted away from users who do not need the bandwidth at that moment. an organization that is collecting large amounts of data may have adequate computing resources to collect the data but needs extra computing resources to analyze all of the data collected, in which case it could outsource its needs to a server farm that would provide the extra boost of resources but only at the specified times. ODC resources may come from within the enterprise, or the organization may outsource its computing needs to a third-party service provider. The benefit of ODC is that the enterprise uses its resources more efficiently by only making available what the user needs at a specific time. For the enterprise outsourcing its computing needs, under this model it would only pay for resources that are used. From: Webopedia, Dec 6th 2011www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/ODC.html

Professor Truex MBA 8125 Informatioon Technology management

Professor Truex MBA 8125 Informatioon Technology management

What has all this to do with process Innovation? How do you see “on Demand” How does this relate to Process Innovation and ICT/IS? What does this perspective require of you as managers? Break Out: What do you think?