InterEconomic Bridge©
By José Payano
Overarching Principles supporting the Concept
1. A Strategic Framework for (e)Business transformation: From the business manager standpoint, in the
complexity of the technology and the environment
surrounding it there exists a high probability of failing in assessing
and selecting the right technologies, infusing the company with the
right practices and culture, motivating people and avoiding conflicts among the
stakeholders, etc....to get an e-business implemented in the correct way.
Companies like CISCO, AMAZON, BBVA (Spain), e-GALICIA (Banco Galicia,
Argentina) probably has got "all things right" from the
outset. On one hand AMAZON was born in this New Economy and, as such,
imbued the right practices and technologies from the beginning. On the
other, some companies just "grasped" the vision, like BBVA, Banco GALICIA, and CISCO: while many
others just leaven their companies with software, which do not, by itself,
propel the necessary growth they so eagerly are in need of.... So a
methodology would help establish a "standard procedure" to enact an
enterprise from its current status to an e-Business allowing it to
reach the e-Business Mantra in an assured and ordered manner.
2. Protect
Cash-flow (producer) business from the upheaval involved in rampaging
transformation: If
businesses are to profit from available technologies, they must re-built
themselves from the ground off. But building a company from zero is
not a luxury to be permitted to a brave corporation, specifically,
current business practices, cultural issues, entrenched power, personal
interests, or just greed would prevail if a serious intent should be made over
changing the status-quo in a big company. But, what if we could
"displace context" and, instead of thinking to suffuse
the current company with technology, we re-think the business
from its grounds first and then, and only then, assign the new processes
to available technologies in a series of unambiguous phases. All work is done in an adjuvant environment,
where Electronic Domain Technologies, are not just wished for, but are in the
heart of company’s inception. In so
doing, we put the new team in a protected environment, and imbue the new
practices and systems without great resistance. Moreover, this new business unit “demands”
this technology, has a budget of his own, and got the support from a “big
mother”. Not so clearly
derived, are the easier sales for the software vendors and ease of
implementation.
3.
Preserve
current business unit strengths and market (or Industry) standing: Converting a
current company to an e-business does not have to mean losing (nor risking) his
current position. It means re-using its resources in an unobtrusive way. What we do today, is ineffective from this
point of view: We try and try to push more and more modern technology
into the current business, but the way we do it is, by far, very
compartmentalized. The culture, the
paper-laden processes become intermingled with the new technologies, and there
exists a duplicity in organizations that is hiding a lot of peripheral
unnoticed costs (…). We tend to use separate technologies in different segments
of the same business processes, without ever looking profoundly at the
value-adding processes and conceiving the links from the beginning.
That’s where the current practices in Business Integration appear. If we try to
apply e-business solutions to current business we implement CRM, Portals, Web
Enabling tools, but the business at all remains unchanged, immutable in its
grounds…. Well the InterEconomic Bridge comes there and solves that
problem too: In the InterEconomic Bridge realm a new unit is
devised to take on the necessary tides of change. This new unit is at the right
side of the “bridge” and is all “Digital” down to its “bones”. It
is a child born in the New Economy reign, without the constraints from the
existing company, except for that
this one provides the financial resources to give the other birth (…). This
unit is a “mirror image” of the original business unit, in terms of re-using
its “content” in a Digital Way. But this mirror company is far more than a
copy, it is a complete re-conception of the original business unit in the
digital era…Think of it as if you were able to get the opportunity to
(re) design a running company down to its tiny activities with the available
technologies and practices in this millennium.
This unit, would be, obviously, all digital, paper less, documents would exist only in digital form,
e-signatures, totally web enabled, integrated with an enterprise nervous
system, with a coalesced overall customer strategy, etc…. It is what I
call the original business unit's Digital Hologram (DH). Furthermore, and here we tackle one of the main
issues underpinning this framework: All business support units, context as some authors
prefer to call it, remains untouched in the original business unit, with a
single addition: They are persuaded to provide digitally integrated
services to the new DH. In so
doing, there are several aspects to be considered as value added ones:
¨
Formerly,
the current unit continues supporting the competitive advantages it has aided
to create in the old business. There
is not lost focus, no diversion of resources, no organization politics,
no resistance to the new processes, nothing new, but providing some services to
a new unit, which by itself has provided the means through its portal and
knowledge enabling processes (…).
¨
Secondly,
each single unit, system, data, and any intangible assets (as knowledge) are
migrated to the Digital Hologram. The
products and services themselves are provided digitally through the DH
but in terms of data, they may be using the data in the legacies systems
provided by the mother company.
¨
Thirdly, the
Bridge provides a means to “link” the new DH to its original company in
an ordered way. Both units co-exist in
uncompetitive collaborative domains.
¨
The old
units begin to infuse the new “way” in a very inched and controlled
manner. They are not upset by the
rippling change; there are no tremors, no fear of losing the place, of being
left behind or asides…
¨
By the
end of the process, these same units would be prepared to work totally
independent from the mother company, which has (hopefully) become a New
Economy (digital) enterprise[1].
What a difference it would be…
To better grasp the concept here, imagine is 1992 and a high
level staff has gathered to apply the InterEconomic Bridge concept to a
big entrenched corporation in the book distribution industry. These guys are re-conceiving the company
from its grounds to take advantage of the nascent Internet phenomenon. They
imagine a book company on-line, with a comprehensive digital catalog, a rich
customer experience with digital processes to assist the customer for
searching, comparing, suggesting other titles, seeing what other people buy, a
list of best sellers, crispy order and payment handling, and run over very lean
(because it is all digital) operations.
In this company, the biggest room is the Data Center. To provide
content, their own current book inventory system would be “linked”[2]
to the catalog in real time. All
orders received by the digital business unit will go straight thru to the
current order management system…. People will be notified by e-mail when books
or items on their interests list, or category they bought or subscribed to
arrived in warehouse…. and so on! (…) SEE NEXT PAGE!
Today[3] is 1995 year-end and Amazon.com, the flagship of a renowned establishment from the “old era”, in the
industry of Book Distribution, has become the Digital
Hologram of Barnes&Noble.
[1] Ultimately, these
units become self-sustained and the mother company exists only as its core in
the DH. The company has become an
e-company.
[2] This is why the concept
is called the “InterEconomic Bridge”: You are essentially bridging your old and
new business model by linking your new with your old most highly appreciated
capabilities i.e. your core coperations!
