The need for something Fishy

It is not for nothing that the famous “Fishbone diagram” for root cause analysis reflects more than just technology and technical components of processes and change. People, Processes, and Culture are all equally, if not more, important factors that lead to project failures or delivery of poor quality information or services.

The introduction of Shared Services or similar strategic changes in organisations invariably requires the integration of Information through the consolidation of systems and processes to achieve the sought for cost savings and efficiency benefits. There is little to be gained by centralising the operation of disparate systems , processes, and data sets. But recent studies by Bloor Research shows that 60% of data migrations fail. Think about that: 60% of attempts to integrate data and processes fail. Shouldn’t your organisation start you Shared Services journey by understanding why and trying to avoid the inevitable Programme failure that arises when people can’t access data they need or can’t trust the data they are accessing, leading to failures of service delivery at the front-line?

Delivering quality information to the right knowledge worker at the right time for the right reasons in the right way is a complex change requiring a clear Vision and Change plan (to bring the People with you), a clear understanding of the Processes and Information Quality characteristics necessary to execute processes, measures of the quality of the data currently in use, and an appropriate plan to evolve the Culture and Governance of disparate and historically ‘siloed’ organisations to meet the challenges of managing Information ‘horizontally’ across the shared service domain.

In 1998 Peter Drucker wrote that we had spent 50 years addressing the “T” in “IT” but that the real challenge for the Information Age was to ensure clarity in the Meaning and Purpose of Information in our organisations. Technology is tool for change but it does not make change happen.

Castlebridge Associates helps organisations think differently about Information so ‘business-side’ leaders can better lead Information-driven change. Rather than focussing just on the Technology rib of your Fishbone, we help you look at the People, Processes, Management Culture, Training and other factors that affect Information-Driven change on areas such as

• Information Quality
• Data Protection
• Data Governance

Organisations that fail to recognise the real root causes of problems they are facing with Information run the very real risk of creating false truisms that consume resources chasing a ghost and investing in the wrong solutions (technology or otherwise).

If there is something fishy going on in your Information, it pays to take a look at the Fishbone!