Forrester CEO George Colony is out with one of his new opinion pieces. This one talks about how little impact technology can have if corresponding process and organizational changes don’t also accompany its introduction.
This seems like technology 101 to me. One of the things drilled into my head at IBM in my younger days was solution selling. The solution wasn’t just the technology — it included everything else required to produce the right solution.
I remember when IBM started out selling database software. Almost as much energy went into convincing major customers to “organize for database” as trying to convince them to buy the technology.
Indeed, every great IBM salesman I knew spent as much time working with his customer on organizational and strategy issues as closing business. One thing led to another. It was just smart business to work that way.
Ray Ozzie also comments that some technologies — notably those that are personally accessible like PC’s — can have a direct impact without the environment, process and organization have to also change.