Information DriversThe Intellectual History of IT’s Business Value

An Archestra Notebook.

© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

I.T. Diversity as noticed by industry Analysts

The websites of analysts will readily list and update the dazzling array of IT issues needing to be coordinated for business purposes.

In this example, our reorganization of an analyst’s list reveals its attention to a virtual management ecosystem featuring critical interactions of tools, operations, and people.

This analyst focuses mainly on new ways of doing things about information.

© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

In a sense, nearly all of the varied I.T. usagecan be said to facilitate business intelligence,

the day-to-day supply of “intellectual property”.

But increasingly, that property is ephemeral and isnot as important as the capability.

Business intelligence:

an umbrella term that includes the

applications, infrastructure and tools,

and best practices that enable access

to and analysis of information to

improve and optimize decisions and

performance.

Business intellect:

The standing combination of

opportunities and methods for

recognition and comprehension,

provided and sustained by people with

information technologies

And while it is a business objective to be smart,The business goal of I.T. is not to be smart.

The business goal of I.T. is to influence.

Influence predisposeswhat kind of value

gets createdby the business for the business.

Predispositions: strategy, targets, competencies, relationships, compatibilities…

Influence results from a party’s acceptance of news, ideas, and instructions

that have becomepart of awareness and expectations

Acceptance affects their decisions about what to do and what to share

Awareness of those decisions and follow-upsconfirms existing parties, and reveals additional parties,

as future candidate donors and recipientsfor more news, ideas and instructions

Historically, business designated certain parties to be the primary donors and recipients of information

used to make decisions that created business benefits.Those parties have been the information drivers.

And, the information was considered to be proprietary.

But now: I.T. has become a commodity.

Today, all users of I.T. are potentially significant donors or recipients.

I.T. users: Public Private Internal External Stationary Mobile Corporate Personal

Information donors and recipients are now virtually ubiquitous and increasingly they are all major co-producers of

“the business intellect”

I.T. will find them for the business

The business will facilitate and privilege their participation,

through more I.T.

Responses evoke a variety of scenarios in which to produce

value

Who matters

Who responds

Who cares

I.T.’s Evolution of Business Value:the Intellectual History

Making information practically valuable

Technology is needed to deal with the problems of:

• Information diversity (selected and composed),

• Information distance (available to location), and …

• Information utility (renewable and timely)

Five different generations of technology have tackled the same information problems (vs. practicality and value) – but in different ways

In each generation, including the next one, making the technology systematic is an engineering challenge

But more importantly, I.T. evolution also features, from one generation to the next, a changing focus on who is driving information to create the most new value

Who are the key information people for the business to influence?I.T. Period Priority Information

Donor / DriverComputing style or platform

Production key Systematics challenge

1960s Business Managers Mainframe Formulas Calculation

1980s Technicians Microsystems Protocols Connectivity

2000s LOB workers Enterprise Processes Workflow

2010s early External Customers Social Analytics Channels

2010s mid to later Public Personas Semantic Surveillance Recognition

The changing story of “which donor needs to be influenced” is one that shows changes, over time, in business priority that were allowed by

the ongoing advancements of information technology. In this story, Business moves progressively over time

from narrow control and prescription to widespread monitoring and prediction.

© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

The Intellectual “Properties” of I.T.

The technology of information

Information technology essentially applies the engineering of tools to the engineering of information.

An engineering lifecycle reaches backwards from the defined solution needed by an information user with a problem, to the opportunity for solution development.

But as diversity increases amongst users and problems, solution opportunities and providers also diversify. Choices, and therefore uncertainty, also increase. The scope of what qualifies as being significant grows larger and larger.

Therefore, based on existing and expected information, “Business” typically must propose which problems to solve, in order to convert significance into benefits.

The practice of informationConsequently, the first business use of I.T. is to address the question:“what do we think we need to know?”

Results that are successful relative to others become preferred.

Competition and Quality drive a business intent to make successful information usage captive and exceptional, held by the business and kept away from others.

Accordingly, the business treats what it knows as an asset: “intellectual property”.

But with I.T. there are dual challenges: what to know (i.e., intelligence), and how to know it (i.e., intellect).

INTELLIGENCE vs. INTELLECT

Intelligence:

the ability to acquire and apply knowledge

and skills.

Business intelligence:

an umbrella term that includes the

applications, infrastructure and tools,

and best practices that enable access

to and analysis of information to

improve and optimize decisions and

performance.

Artificial intelligence:

the theory and development of

computer systems able to perform

tasks that normally require human

intelligence, such as visual

perception, speech recognition,

decision-making, and translation

between languages.

INTELLIGENCE vs. INTELLECT

Intellect:

the faculty of reasoning and understanding

objectively

Artificial intellect:

Documentation, Designs, and

Programming, a.k.a. Content, often

considered to be intellectual property

(“IP”)

Business intellect:

The standing combination of

opportunities and methods for

recognition and comprehension,

provided and sustained by people with

information technologies

THE REAL VALUE OF INFORMATION: MEANING

Semantics:

the meaning or relationship of meanings of

a sign or set of signs

Business intelligence:

an umbrella term that includes the

applications, infrastructure and tools,

and best practices that enable access

to and analysis of information to

improve and optimize decisions and

performance.

Business intellect:

The standing combination of

opportunities and methods for

recognition and comprehension,

provided and sustained by people with

information technologies

I.T. evolution increasingly allows anyone to seek, identify and communicate meaning.

The value of Information Practice

Applied Intellect: create Meaning to create ValueWhen it comes to the “Business Intellect”, technology impact on business information has always been interesting in three key ways.

• Capability is driven more often by the complexity of information than by the amount of information

• The value of processed information is differentiated more often by location than by uniqueness

• The most powerful use of held information is to replace it on time

The Practical Reality of Intellect

More information is not necessarily better

• Capability is driven more often by the complexity of information than by the amount of information

• The most coveted know-how has been hard to achieve.

• Producing unusual information is more often about composition than about hoarding

The Practical Reality of Intellect

The importance of information is relative, not absolute

• The value of processed information is differentiated more often by location than by uniqueness

• Having information in hand produces decisions, and decisions produce differences of advantage or risk

• The probability of targeted availability needs to be built into the production

The Practical Reality of Intellect

Information is perishable

• The most powerful use of retained information is to consume it on time

• Trading old information for new is rarely useful except across different parties; the exception is when news generates insight

• The best information “asset” is something that is better than what was there before; if information is not replaceable then it is not an enduring asset

The “Best” Information is practical, but…

HARD TO MAKE

PUT IN THE RIGHT HANDS

AGGRESSIVELY RENEWED

and

and

and

locationtimeliness

complexity

The “Best” Information is valuable, because…

HARD TO MAKE

PUT IN THE RIGHT HANDS

AGGRESSIVELY RENEWED

and

and

and

DecisionsInsights

Know how

The next “Normal”

Information donors and recipients are now virtually ubiquitous, and increasingly they are allmajor co-producers of the

business intellect

The I.T. capability

Business needs information engineering to be enabled by technology engineering

• To influence information drivers, feedback is the primary objective of business information engineering

Identifying and influencing information donors and recipients underlies the decisions that create the business benefits (higher advantage, lower risk) from discovered or manufactured opportunities

• Donors and recipients are inside andoutside of the organization and are also influencers

Discover and influence donors and recipients

Predict and develop their opportunities

Shepherd advantages and risks of their response

© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

“Value” is a performance, not property

• Donors and recipients of significant information are now virtually ubiquitous but often unidentified

• I.T. will find them for the business

• The business will facilitate and privilege the donor’s participationthrough more I.T.

• Privilege requires solving information problems for donors in “real time”

In business semantics (the real-time creation of meaning), all I.T. users are now both donors and influencers

BUSINESS INFLUENCE

Intelligence Intellect Intellect Interaction

Information status shared internal external privileged

objective Prediction Interpretation Promotion Decision

operations Surveillance Profiling Proposal Priority

function Monitoring Pattern recognition Design Preference

ability Sensing Detection Indication Proof

Continually earned and renewed

Highly time-sensitive Subject to sudden remodeling

Frequently negotiated

INFORMATION VALUE

Increasingly, I.T. evolution means that every I.T. user participates in the full range of abilities, functions and operations that create or recognize meaning, and thus value, from information

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The Next Normal

• The next wave of I.T.’s business value identifies parties as donors who have not even yet identified themselves as such, and solves their information problems

• I.T. is a commodity; all users of I.T. are potential information drivers

• Decisions by information donors and recipients predispose business performance

• Results are increasingly less proprietary but they can be privileged

• Solving information problems for donors and recipients “buys” business feedback

• Interaction Privilege with Information People is the new I.P. of I.T.

© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

mryder@malcolmryder.com