Discover the IT Cherry

How to become the most valued IT organisation by using cherries.

Mark Butterhoff

Barry Derksen

Aart van der Vlist

Thank you!

We would like to thank our customers who, every year, ensure that we continuously deepen both our and their knowledge.

We would like to thank the customers of i-INC and IT Performance Lab for continually making the building of trust and collaboration an interesting experience. We would also like to thank the members of the Business & IT Trends Institute (www.bitti.nl) who, every year, ensure that we deepen both our and their knowledge and enable thorough studies on interfaces between business & IT.

A special thanks to Robert-Jan Simons and Antoine de Wispelaere. A part of this book has actually been published before, named “Lekkere IT Smaakt naar Kersen”, a project in which Robert-Jan Simons has been deeply involved. The content has been validated during and by multiple presentations, round-tables and companies and even applied, for which I would like to thank Antoine de Wispelaere for facilitating these experiences. They showed that the subject is clearly recognised, however it also became clear that multiple leaders in IT are having discussions with their colleagues from business as to the actual delivering of “added value”.

We would like to thank our most important sources of inspiration: Miriam Boer & Leonie Derksen-Bestebroer.

Thank you, you were the cherries to our knowledge and skills.

More information about these and other editions can be obtained from: Business & IT Trends Institute (BITTI B.V.), Houtlaan 33, 2334 CK Leiden, the Netherlands. Mail: info@bitti.nl, tel. +31 (0) 71-8795174

© BITTI B.V., Leiden, Mark Butterhoff, Barry Derksen, Aart van der Vlist

Original title: De IT Kersensensatie

1ste edition

July 2016

English Edition

August 2019

Production

BITTI B.V.

Editorial staff

M. Butterhoff bc. RE

dr.lec. B. Derksen MSc MMC CISA CGEIT

Typesetting

Paul Gerlach

Cover design

Paul Gerlach

Folder illustration

Paul Gerlach

Translation

Noreen Kaland

ISBN/EAN

9789081786676

NUR-Code

100

NUR-description

Educational publications general

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Preface

The authors of “Discover the IT Cherry” have taken up the challenge to create an inspiring model that can help IT organisations and departments to realise a more mature relationship between business and IT in four steps and, by doing this, to become a more valued IT organisation. By studying and learning from organisations such as Virgin Airlines, Tesla, Starbucks and many others, the authors develop their cherry-experience model, in which the reader can plot himself from lemon (sour) to cherry (sweet), and the actions that need to be taken to reach the cherry level.

The merit of the authors is that they clearly depict the current situation in which IT finds itself and illustrate it as an example of the Lemons Problem as phrased by George Akerlof in 1970. By doing this, they confirm in a striking manner the sour taste that still accompanies the relationship between business and IT. In order to leave the lemon phase, the authors propose the cherry model which is trusted upon to cause some necessary thrill and which relies on trust and most importantly the creation of experiences. This additional step of experience is an important message to business and IT. The book contributes to having readers reflect on the way in which they can bring their IT cherry experience.

Prof. Dr. Wim van Grembergen

Contents

Kick Off: Because it’s possible!

IT is a market for lemons

2.1 The Lemons Problem

2.2 The IT Lemons Problem

The limited value of IT

3.1 What is value?

3.2 Creation of value

Ladder of economic value

Value disciplines

Customer Loyalty

ValIT

Information Economics

Other Value Models

3.3 IT measures lemons

Al Capone or Seneca

4.1 How to grow from a lemon to a cherry IT organisation

4.2 The layers

4.3 The Stages

4.4 First part of the IT Cherry model

With cherries comes experience

5.1 Experiences within the cherry model

5.2 The creation of the cherry experience

Customer Experience Map / Customer Journey Map

Experience development

The DNA of Customer Experience

The four realms of experience

5.3 Examples of Experiences within IT

Example Customer experience map of an IT customer

5.4 Collaboration in lemon and cherry flavour

5.5 The IT cherry-experience model

5.6 Employee satisfaction is prerequisite

5.7 Continuous innovation of experiences

The best IT is the one with cherry experience!

And, just like that, you become CIO of an IT lemons department

7.1 Entering the stage

Get off to a good start

Don’t try to boil the ocean

Building trust

7.2 Smartly surfing Moore’s exponential curve

Processor power, memory and connections

The key to cherry success is agility

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet with IT

Unpredictability as the complication

7.3 Ruthless execution

A roadmap

The success calendar

About the authors

1

Kick Off: Because it’s possible!

‘Run IT as a business’, ‘… deliver in services’, ‘… provide added value…’, ‘Business IT Alignment’, ‘agile way of working’, ‘… IT as enabler instead of supplier…’ are just a few coined expressions one hears and reads everywhere these days. All of them are expressions related to the need for a mature relationship between business and IT. However, whilst many IT organisations are working hard on developing such a relationship, we perceive that they succeed only partially, despite many efforts. Why is this?

Einstein once said: “… we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. In our opinion, that is where the crux of the problem can be found. We find that technocratic thinking governs within many IT organisations. Characteristic for this manner of thinking is the assumption that, when the physical environment of the occupation changes, the behaviour and consequently the quality of the relationship also changes. Hence, new models, processes, tooling, standards, roles and structures are being introduced accompanied by the expectation that ‘logically, suddenly and automatically’ the communication and collaboration within IT and the cooperation with business will improve. After all, a change in physical surroundings leads to a change in behaviour. However, nothing is farther from the truth.

For too long now, we within IT have been trying to improve our organisation and our relationship with business with said technocratic thinking. We propose a different kind of thinking and borrow for this purpose insights of the general economical sciences and those of a Nobel Prize winner.

Central within this way of thinking is the willingness of people to buy something from others and the dynamics integral to this process. Trust and image are crucial here. This other perspective gives surprising insights. In this case, an integral approach is key.

By saying this, we convey the idea that the reciprocal cohesion of the most important areas of focus within the IT business is much more important than the isolated optimisation of one of those areas. A different way of thinking, a different perspective…

In addition, we asked ourselves whether this different way of thinking actually comes with the additional value the IT business has been discussing so often lately. During this research we found answers within marketing that make the perception of IT an extraordinary experience. Since, as Lebbis would have said it, “If we want to, it’s possible .”1

In the subsequent chapters, we will discuss the current situation of IT. This chapter will give insight into the basics of the terminology used in the solution. Afterwards, we will consider the concept of ‘value’ and the way in which an IT customer perceives this. To prevent us from solely considering problems and deficiencies, we will naturally provide a means to break away from the current situation and start delivering the so desired value of IT.

However, we first invite our reader to imagine wanting to buy a second-hand car. For the sake of completeness, imagine a lemon and a cherry.

1 The perfect terrace: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yw3hzp1rJY (in Dutch)

2

IT is a market for lemons

2.1 The Lemons Problem

The Lemons Problem has been first described by the famous economist George Akerlof2 in 1970. Next, we will give a short explanation of the problem.

The market for second-hand cars holds dealers who sell good cars and dealers who sell bad cars. The definition of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is of no real concern here, since we reason from the perspective of the buyer. This buyer has his or her own perception of a good or a bad car.

The problem is that, beforehand, potential buyers are unaware which dealer sells good cars and which dealer sells bad cars. After all, this can often not be seen on the outside of the cars. When someone thinks he has bought a good car but, in reality, it turns out to be the opposite, the buyer will feel betrayed. In the United States this is referred to as a ‘lemon’. This uncertainty the buyer experiences leads to certain considerations and decisions with extensive consequences for the entire market, as we will subsequently describe.

These negative dynamics are known as the Lemons Problem.

Now the question is; what would a potential buyer do in such an uncertain situation? The smart, rational potential buyer would assess the situation and would be, for example, prepared to pay 10.000 euros for a good, second-hand car and 2.000 euros for a bad one. However, since it is unknown which car is good and which is bad, the potential buyer mediates and is prepared to pay 6.000 euros. With this price in mind, the potential buyer starts his or her search.