|
BASELINE/BTM 500
Everyone says information technology adds value to enterprise operations. Analysts and practitioners alike expound the benefits technology brings by creating greater efficiencies, lowering costs and enhancing productivity.
But how does technology relate to an organization’s revenue and profit performance?
That’s the question we asked when reviewing the methodology for this year’s Baseline/BTM 500. Our conclusion: It’s not enough to measure IT productivity in the abstract. The ultimate measure of any enterprise activity is how it affects the top and bottom lines.
A new partnership between Baseline and BTM Corp. will produce a detailed report based on results collected from technology-savvy corporations highlighting the correlation between business technology management maturity levels and corporate financial performance. The Baseline/BTM 500 issue is now available. About BTM Corp.
The 2008 Baseline/BTM 500 Study
Convergence: The Wave of Future Success
Enterprises that fully integrate business and technology management are more nimble, more competitive and potentially more profitable, according to the Baseline/BTM 500 study.
GM: Life in the Fast Lane
High-level managers who are well-versed in both business and IT help drive operations, profitability and product design at GM. This strategy has helped cut IT costs by $12 billion since 1996.
Marriott: Suite Success
A steadfast focus on IT governance, strategic planning, investment management and maintaining a robust enterprise architecture enabled Marriott to move toward a converged business-technology environment.
NetApp: Young Company, Mature IT
Function-based councils, coupled with a steering committee of IT and executive members, help NetApp prioritize technology and business process investments and monitor progress against the company’s strategic plan.
Pitney Bowes: Stamp of Approval
A streamlined global IT organization and strategic use of outsourcing helps Pitney Bowes focus on implementing technologies that support the company’s business objectives and provide more value to its customers.
Verizon: They Can Hear Customers Now
Migrating the company’s IT operations away from various business units and centralizing them within the corporate IT organization has created a collaborative approach to business. This has resulted in increased productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction.
BASELINE/BTM 500 RESOURCES:
Methodology Statement
The BTM Institute created an index that highlights the connection between corporate financial performance and business technology convergence. This research also shows that enterprises at lower levels of maturity consequently score lower for business technology productivity, responsiveness and project success than those enterprises at higher levels. As the enterprise’s maturity improves, the increasing synchronicity of business strategy and technology delivery makes the enterprise more agile and adaptable.
To understand what these successful companies do differently in terms of their management behaviors, BTM Assessment tools, based upon the BTM FrameworkTM, are used to evaluate those organizations against a set of essential management capabilities for effective business technology convergence. These capabilities are grouped in four functional areas: Governance & Organization, Strategy & Planning, Strategic Investment Management, and Strategic Enterprise Architecture. Each capability represents a specific management competency defined by four critical dimensions: each is ordered by repeatable processes, executed through appropriate organizational structures, and enabled by the right information and technology.
BTM research shows that at Level 1 enterprises typically execute some strategic capabilities in a disaggregated, task-like manner. At Level 2, an organization exhibits limited capabilities, attempts to assemble information for major decisions, and consults the technology function on decisions with obvious business technology implications. Enterprises at Level 3 are “functional” with respect to the capabilities, and those at Level 4 have the capabilities fully implemented. Organizations achieving Level 5 maturity are good enough to know when to change the rules to maintain strategic advantages over competitors.
Publicly available financial data is then compared to the unweighted average figures for the industry groups of the leaders for a direct head-to-head comparison. The comparison serves both to normalize the comparison and to reduce the number of factors that could otherwise account for performance differences. Depending on their technology investment and the role of technology in their type of business, different industries may experience different results.
Business Technology Convergence Index
The role of business technology convergence in innovation and adaptability and its effect on financial performance. Technology is a major expense in the modern corporation and is deeply embedded in every aspect of doing business. Moreover, it has become the critical enabler of strategic imperatives - to be agile, resilient and innovative. This BTM Institute research report introduces an index that highlights the connection between corporate financial performance and business technology convergence. A full copy of this research report can be found at the BTM Institute's Web site (registration required)
BTM Research Team
The team that conducted the research and analyses for the Baseline/BTM 500 report has impeccable credentials, combining more than a century of business, academic, research and hands-on management experience. For more background on this team, please go to the Baseline/BTM 500 Team page.
LATEST BASELINE/BTM 500 ARTICLES:
P&G Signs on to Paperless
Proctor & Gamble’s electronic document and signature initiatives are aimed at accelerating R&D, meeting regulatory requirements and cutting costs.
Del Monte Gets Social
Aiming to use social networking as a marketing tool and a way to get closer to its customers, Del Monte has introduced two customer communities.
ERP: Out of the Woods
Support problems forced machinery-parts maker Blount International to abandon a routine SAP outsourcing deal. The cure: Blount manages the system in-house, but relies on an outside service for secure hosting.
Changing Careers
Consulting offers refuge and sometimes riches to CIOs who are interested in new challenges—or who see their careers slowing as the economy deflates.
Shifting Gears: A Matter Of Survival At Moody`s
After Moody’s segregated its credit-analysis and reporting business from the unit that sells data and analysis tools, the financial reporting firm charged the IT department with developing, unifying and standardizing the technology needed to support that change.
Old Pipes, New Pipes
American States Water and other Baseline 500 companies find that leased-line wide-area networks are sometimes more reliable and secure—and less costly—than the public cloud.
Good Times, Bad Times
Baseline 500 companies handle the economic ups and downs with focused IT spending. You should too.
PAST BASELINE 500 ARTICLES:
See More Baseline Content
See More BTM Institute Content | 
Baseline500 
