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503.452.9166
Corporate Strategy
Since before the Industrial Age, the bottom-line corporate objective has
been to make a profit. But making a profit is no longer the only aspect of
doing business that is important. Today, organizations must also take
into account additional factors of how they do business. As a result of the
Total Quality Management movement, many organizations now regard the
satisfaction of their customers as the measure of success that will
ultimately determine their profitability. Others have learned the importance
of efficient and effective workflow, and that efficiency is not always
guaranteed by the purchase of the latest technology. Forward-looking
firms also recognize that information is a vital asset and key to finding real
return from investments in technology, facilities and people.
While profit will remain paramount, these additional aspects of corporate
strategy play a crucial role in determining the proper alignment between
information technology and document strategies.
IT Strategy
In the 1970s and 1980s, information technology (IT) strategies were
single minded. They focused on simply gathering, processing and
outputting data. With the advent of high-speed laser printers, however,
data processing professionals unwittingly entered the world of document
processing - a world hitherto inhabited only by typesetters, graphic artists
and pressmen. A gap developed between the advancement of
information technology and the cosmetic appearance of corporate
documents. Even today, countless documents continue to be issued that
look scarcely different than if they had been typed on a typewriter.
How could this happen in light of the tremendous advancements in
printer technology? The answer lies in the misalignment between
corporate, IT, and document strategies. Until only recently, IT objectives
could be summed simply: produce the right data at the right time. The
effectiveness of the documents produced was not a concern. Does this
mean that data processing professionals were insensitive to the needs of
the organization? No. Effective documents simply were not part of the
paradigm of the computer department. This is perfectly reasonable given
the traditional IT perspective, but who is looking things from a document
perspective?
Document Strategy
What single aspect of business is critical to profitability yet "owned" by no
one? The answer is: the Document. After all, most organizations have an
IT director, but how many have a "document director?" The result is a
proliferation of documents that do not effectively foster corporate
objectives. How often do you receive a statement that doesn't make
sense, a bill that is inaccurate or misleading, or a letter that is confusing?
How often do you find yourself searching for information in multiple
places, using duplicate forms or sifting through obsolete files? When you
open your mail, are you made to feel that your patronage is important or
the products that you buy are of good quality? The trouble is that no one
has responsibility for what these documents look like or how effectively
they communicate.
To see the consequences of this situation, imagine an overall corporate
strategy that includes these three basic elements:
- Increase Revenue
- Decrease Costs
- Increase Customer Satisfaction
If documents going to external customers are daunting or confusing, and
communication is unclear, what will be the effect on these basic
corporate objectives? One result is that customers may either be late with
their payments or not pay at all. The result: revenue will decrease. Instead
of paying, customers may call the company for clarification. The result:
costs will increase. Eventually, customers may become frustrated and
angry about the way the company does business. The result: satisfaction
will decrease. What will be seen in the end is a total reversal of the
fundamental corporate objectives.
Consider the consequences when looking at internal processes. In this
case, corporate strategy may be:
- Decrease Effort
- Increase Productivity
- Reduce Labor (headcount)
If internal documents are misleading, hard to find, outdated or inaccurate,
what will be the effect on work processes? Workers will make mistakes,
waste time looking for needed information and require additional
supervision. The result: more effort will be required. Instead of being
more productive, employees will be continually re-working their tasks. The
result: productivity will decrease. Eventually, additional staff will be
needed to maintain the business. The result: headcount will increase.
This is, again, a total reversal of corporate objectives.
In most organizations today the IT department continues to focus solely
on processing data and delivering output. Even trendy business-to-
business and Web-based initiatives tend to focus more on technology
than on communication. When viewed from a document perspective,
however, the negative consequences to a corporation can be clearly
seen. Most corporate strategies, however, have traditionally overlooked
documents as a factor that drives daily business. As a result, vital
documents may perform exactly opposite from their intended purpose.
What is needed is a document strategy to properly align corporate and IT
strategies around the key objectives of the firm.
Alignment of Strategies
The essential questions are: What is your corporate strategy and how can
your document strategy support it? What are the IT strategies needed to
enable both?
Like any fundamental business strategy, a document strategy must be
addressed at several levels. As far as customers are concerned, the
factors that determine satisfaction and perceived quality are most
apparent through external documents. As far as workers are concerned,
routine interdepartmental documents enable efficient workflow and
provide "corporate knowledge." Both of these aspects are of fundamental
importance to corporate profitability.
How we manage documents has a great deal to do with how we manage
business. A document strategy can help make documents part of the
success of a business rather than one of the problems. Yet, only 25
percent of companies have a document strategy. "Designing a Document
Strategy" describes a much-needed method for putting one into place.