Mumbai:

Think about it for a moment. How fast would the message — the poke — reach the decision-makers, the ‘brain’ of the organisation (wherever that might be), and how fast would they react? Chances are, not very fast. Days or weeks, perhaps, maybe months.

While this was fine in the past when you could be reasonably assured that your competitors also worked the same way, you might have to worry about the future.

Applying technology to business processesThis issue was dealt with at length at a conference (IBM Forum 2002 held in Mumbai on 26 November 2002) on e-business solutions for enterprises in India organised by IBM. One of the main themes was the ‘real-time enterprise’ that works on up-to-the-minute information from customers, suppliers, employees and others to make real-time analyses for immediate responses to situations.

As organisations the world over are moving fast to apply technology to business processes, they are moving ever closer to such a real-time enterprise. Indian companies might do well to understand this trend and try to follow it to the extent they can.

The gains are clear. In an environment where change happens by the minute, taking decisions based on days-old information leaves an organisation vulnerable to attack by nimbler rivals. You also need to replace intuitive guesses about the present with hard data. This can be achieved if all parts of the enterprise are connected well enough for them to get immediate access to what they need.

All participants in the ‘extended enterprise’ stand to gain from the greater connectedness and richer information environment that technology can provide. That includes customer and suppliers as well as managers and other employees. All of them can have their needs addressed much more quickly.

The organisation as a whole saves time and money through reduced inventories and other cost-reductions. And it is able to take quicker and better informed decisions, becoming more adaptable.

In theory, such an enterprise should be able to make almost instantaneous adjustments. If there’s a big increase in demand, the company should be able to almost immediately purchase more supplies in order to meet the greater demand.

How can companies effect a transformation?Becoming a real-time enterprise is much more than buying the right hardware and software. It is a slow process of evolution requiring a change of culture, the hardest thing to change in an organisation.

As Robert Tucker, the president of the Innovation Resource and one of the keynote speakers at IBM Forum 2002, explained, such a change requires all participants — employees, customers, suppliers and managers — to have a buy-in. This may involve extended training programmes. Perhaps the best way to start would be to work with what’s already there, gradually adapting existing resources to the requirements of a more connected enterprise.

Obviously, real-time enterprises can only function on real-time software applications. Organisations need to develop an ‘electronic nervous system’ around which they can structure a software architecture. Some technologies, like enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and knowledge management systems, have become essential in today’s business world.

A real-time enterprise might also require the organisation’s customers and suppliers to update their IT systems. Getting this done, however, requires considerable persuasive skills.

Long-term thinkingIndian companies must take a long-term view and start gearing their systems and resources, especially those that are critical, to meet the requirements of a real-time enterprise.

However, as S M Dutta, former chairman of Hindustan Lever, pointed out in his keynote address to the IBM conference, Indian companies — or at least those that largely serve the domestic market — must keep Indian market conditions in mind and not blindly follow Western business models.

It is also important that businesses don’t transform their companies into hasty enterprises instead of real-time enterprises. Not everything can be speeded up. Some things need greater reflection than others. In business, as in all walks of life, there are no panaceas, no matter what the alchemists tell you.