NWC: How have you seen the role of IT within business change?
Engstrom: IT's role has changed so much, mostly because it now consumes a significant portion of the budget and greatly affects employee productivity, both positively and negatively. For instance, with greater reliance on automation, any reliability issue can hurt productivity. Finally, IS is a key enabler of many new business strategies and capabilities.
NWC: What role do you see IT playing in business value?
Engstrom: IT, given its project orientation, delivers consistent project process methodology (the repeatable steps/discipline) to deliver a project from assess stage to sustain stage. IT also provides enabling technology for most business strategies.
|
Reid F. Engstrom,
director of Harley's IS |
NWC: How can IT get into a position where it truly understands what its business is all about?
Engstrom: IT must maintain positive relationships with business departments to understand departmental and business strategies. This puts IT in a position to brainstorm opportunities with the business factions -- this cannot happen in a vacuum outside the business. We team up with groups of business people to regularly discuss business/technology opportunities. Current initiatives focus on quality, and capacity expansion to deliver the most motorcycle and parts volume and improve new model delivery. We also work to help our dealers sell more of the right product to our customers.
NWC: How should IT pros become more business savvy?
Engstrom: By maintaining relationships outside of IT. We're always encouraging participation in motorcycle rallies, HOG [Harley Owners' Group] membership and company events. And of course, there's the team building and communication among different groups within the business. It's also important to volunteer for enterprisewide initiatives.
NWC: How does IT become more proactive in identifying opportunities and proposing technology usage to take advantage of those opportunities?
Engstrom: Our business teams, called Information Technology Councils, handle that goal. The teams consist of 12 businesspeople and three IS folks. They meet once a month to discuss opportunities and strategies that can take advantage of information.
NWC: Will IT gain more business power in the next few years?
Engstrom: IT will gain power only if it can prove that it's a contributing partner, that it delivers to expectation, that it effectively and cost-efficiently delivers the technology required to run the business and gain new capabilities.
NWC: Do you teach your IT folks about the importance of business knowledge?
Engstrom: Yes, we have a number of mandatory and voluntary business-process classes.
NWC: How has your own job changed?
Engstrom: I'm more active in business issues. I regularly promote the direct business value of IS -- both inside and outside of IS. And I am much more focused on the key elements of change. Technology is rarely the issue. Most often change is about people's ability and interest to make change and ensure that the new process is optimized for it.
NWC: How do you promote the business value of technology?
Engstrom: Through constant emphasis on project reporting, business cases, appropriation requests and performance reporting, among other things.
NWC: Can you name examples where IT proactively solved a problem or proposed a strategy of which you were particularly proud?
Engstrom: We installed VPNs to support improved performance and reliability for our mobile and remote stakeholders securely. We elevated change management in our methodology to deliver projects faster. We've adopted applications that have driven improved inventory management to get the right parts and products to our dealers and streamline the supply chain, and have improved our ability to analyze data.
NWC: What's it like to work at Harley?
Engstrom: I've been at Harley since 1996. I find the whole teaming process rewarding. And yes, I ride a 2001 Road King.
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