Quick Wins: Transforming Organizations at the Periphery

Organizations around the globe rely on manual work, spreadsheets, and similar desktop tools to perform both mundane and sophisticated tasks. In some cases, desktop solutions take on appropriate tasks, like crunching data, but in other cases spreadsheets have taken a dominant role in keeping organizations running. In the latter case, spreadsheets serve as a vital link for transforming and porting data between systems, managing operational business data, running assembly lines, automating financial work, and automating other capabilities. These “shadow systems” represent significant risks to organizations as they tend to be undocumented, poorly architected, and largely ungoverned. Consider a large daisy chain of complex interlocking spreadsheets; if one breaks, the ripple effects could easily undermine a variety of internal and customer-facing functionality. Shadow systems undermine security, auditability, business performance, and future efforts to deliver automation to the business areas that rely on them. This episode of The North Star will explore the role of the “Quick Win” approach in strategy execution and business transformation. William Ulrich will discuss how the Quick Win approach was used to transform an organization at the periphery while building a foundation for more extensive, future transformation initiatives. Please join Mr. Ulrich as he explores the Quick Win approach and how it can impact your IT investment strategy and related transformation efforts for years to come.