Re: Some year end thoughts

On 12/20/05, Phil Groschwitz <ssc1478@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Where I work - FedEx Ground - IT is very strategic.  Always has been.
> We have plenty of metrics that are measured to ensure goals are met but
> those goals could not ever be met without IT.


Just uneducated gesticulating here, coupled with my own experience...

It seems to me that certain industries understand the potential value that
IT can bring to it. I envision that the so-called delivery giants (Fed-Ex,
UPS, DHL, etc.) could not even possibly survive without the type of
technology they use to become / stay efficient to maximize profits in a (I
imagine) very cutthroat market.

My experience with marketing organizations suggests that the requirement to
respond quickly to client demands, dealing with massive amounts of
information accurately, determining patterns in a timely fashion that could
not be done without a computer.

I may have mentioned this before, but I've found the manufacturing sector
(mostly third-tier automotive suppliers) to be a mixed bag in this regard.
Very seldom have I seen strong IT management in this environment; usually
the IT managers are former programmers with no formal management training.
This, I believe, sets up the inevitable "yes-man" IT manager that reports to
a bean-counter executive.  In this scenario, IT is utilized only to the
extent that bean-counters find value, which, 99% of the time, is the
accounting function.

Just my .02, YMMV, yada, yada, yada.
- Dan