Mobile Applications - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 475

changed environment, thereafter, required the special wizardry and con-
stant attention of a specific employee to keep it operational? Is it proficient
if the change is virtually free and painless, but out of synch with market
opportunity timing? Is it proficient if it can readily accommodate a broad
latitude of change that is no longer needed, or too narrow for the latest chal-
lenges thrown at it by the business environment? Are we change proficient if
we can accommodate any change that comes our way as long as it is within
a narrow 10% of where we already are?
Thus, change proficiency can be understood to be codetermined by four
parameters:
1. Time : a measure of elapsed time to complete a change (fairly objective)
2. Cost : a measure of monetary cost incurred in a change (somewhat
objective)
3. Quality : a measure of prediction quality in meeting change time,
cost, and specification targets robustly (somewhat subjective)
4. Range : a measure of the latitude of possible change, typically defined
and determined by mission or charter (fairly subjective)
22.1.5 Enhancing Enterprise Agility
22.1.5.1 E-Business Strategy
E-business refers to an enterprise that has reengineered itself to conduct its
business via the Internet and Web. Successful enterprises need to reconcep-
tualize the very nature of their business.
As customers begin to buy via Internet and enterprises rush to use the
Internet to create new operational efficiencies, most enterprises seek to
update their business strategies. Enterprises survey the changing envi-
ronment and then modify their company strategies to accommodate these
changes. This involves major changes in the way companies do business,
including changes in marketing, sales, service, product delivery, and even
manufacturing and inventory. Changed strategies will entail changed busi-
ness processes that, in turn, imply changed software systems or, better still,
software systems that are changeable!
22.1.5.2 Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Although, BPR has its roots in information technology (IT) management, it
is basically a business initiative that has a major impact on the satisfaction of
both the internal and external customers. Michael Hammer, who triggered
the BPR revolution in 1990, considers BPR as a radical change for which IT is
the key enabler. BPR can be broadly termed as the rethinking and change of busi-
ness processes to achieve dramatic improvements in the measures of performances
such as cost, quality, service, and speed.