Web Content Management - High-Performance Web Databases: Design, Development, and Deployment - page 95

Exhibit 7-2. Departmental solution.
These attempts at a solution sometimes worked (an example is shown in
Exhibit 7-2). The primary reason that they actually worked is that the prob-
lems were internally focused and so were the solutions. Most of the
attempts at a solution were characterized by intimate familiarity with the
internal processes and the physical knowledge repositories, and close geo-
graphic proximity to enable access to and sharing of knowledge content.
INTERNAL FOCUS EXACERBATES THE LACK OF AUTOMATION
In parallel with the focus on structured data by business leaders and
their respective IT organizations was an absolute focus on internal process
improvements — internal processes, as opposed to external processes
such as those between an enterprise, its partners, suppliers, and custom-
ers. Nothing exemplifies this internal focus more than the tremendous suc-
cess enjoyed by most ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications dur-
ing the past decade. ERP applications are almost exclusively focused on
internal productivity and effectiveness. It is not surprising that the overrid-
ing justification of most IT-related efforts during the past half century has
been cost reduction.
This propensity to focus IT efforts internally allowed, and at times
encouraged, a single dimensional approach to information or knowledge
management focused on only the structured parts of data. The internal
focus allowed IT to turn a blind eye to the unstructured world. IT could do
what it knew best: how to manage structured data. The single dimensional
approach fed on itself as there was perceived success. Had there been a
compelling requirement to address external processes as well, there could
possibly have been an earlier recognition that geographical proximity and
intimate familiarity with internal norms and processes are not sound bases
upon which to build business solutions.