More recently, manufacturing became a global endeavour, as the complete process was segmented into stages that could be carried out wherever it was most geographically advantageous.

The same basic phenomena are currently transforming IT. Until recently, IT solutions have been built at home, within geographic boundaries, often within corporate firewalls.

Today, however, organisations have an opportunity to standardise IT work processes, segment the work, and disperse work globally for greatest efficiency ⬠in short, to industrialise IT.
 
Mastering this approach will result in efficiencies that go well beyond simple cost-cutting, enabling IT to generate savings that can be re-invested in technology.

Rather than being a function whose costs need to be managed, IT can take on a broader role as a force for value creation.
 
Application and process delivery

Industrialisation in the context of IT means much more than what is traditionally called outsourcing or going offshore. Without doubt, many organisations have achieved real benefit from turning over basic business processes and IT to outside providers.

Likewise, many organisations have found it advantageous to send IT work to low-labour-cost countries, such as India, the Philippines or China. But the industrialisation of IT is a broader, longer-term concept that goes beyond outsourcing or subcontracting work offshore.
 
The industrialisation of IT rests on three pillars that parallel those underlying the success of modern manufacturing. Each signifies a fundamentally new approach to application and process delivery, and each is a component that high-performance businesses need to master.
 
1. Work processes are replicable and measurable

Industrialised manufacturing is based on processes that can be repeated to produce goods of reliably high quality again and again. Of course there is room for variation and customisation, but the goods must ultimately conform to a proven and standardised model.
 
Yet in technology, development projects have long been treated as one-off creative endeavours. Now, though, IT can benefit from re-usable application and technical architectures.

Tools are being developed to essentially automate much of the delivery process. Delivery processes and methodologies are being codified so they are repeatable. These changes greatly increase productivity.
 
And productivity can continue to improve, because rigorous metrics capture real, quantitative feedback across multiple projects. By learning what works best and where improvement is possible, an organisation can continuously enhance its processes and tools as they mature. Productivity, quality and speed can all improve over time.
 
2. Work is performed by capable, technology-connected teams

In an automobile manufacturing plant, no one individual builds the entire vehicle. Work is segmented so that various parts of the assembly process are performed by those with the right specialised skills, up and down the line.
 
The parallel concept in IT is the development of different groups of people with deep skills in technology, business processes and project management, who collaborate as a team. Technology helps team members to communicate seamlessly, even when they are not working side by side, and to develop a strong common corporate culture and set of values, so that they are all committed to delivering a high-quality, technology-based business solution.
 
3. Work is located wherever it is most efficiently performed

In manufacturing, work was first concentrated in factories. Then, as products became easier to transport by rail, truck and air, portions of the business were relocated around the country, then around the globe.
 
Much the same is happening in technology, with one key difference: the product here is not a tangible object like a shoe or a car ⬠it is information itself.

Technology delivery centres, like factories, bring together individuals with shared responsibilities or skill sets. But these individuals are networked through technology and communications channels like the Internet, which enables easy knowledge transfer and the rapid movement of information around the globe.
 
That smooth global flow of information means work can be strategically and economically segmented and dispersed geographically, for scale and flexibility. This offers security based on redundancy and speed.
 
Work transformation

Adopting this strategy for the design and delivery of technology solutions means more than simply transferring work outside the central IT organisation.

Skill centres and multiple locations are just components of a new overall approach to applications development and maintenance.
 
There are a number of ways that this approach transforms how work is done:

* It matches teams and experience to the complexity of the project and work;

* It optimises scarce business and technical skills across geographies, service providers and departments;

* It leverages the best tools available to eliminate repetitive and error-prone work activities: and

* It develops advanced manufacturing-style metrics that focus on cycle time and the elimination of rework and low-value work.
 
Global delivery networks

A number of organisations have followed the industrialisation model for building global technology-delivery networks. Taking an industrialised approach to IT can provide some unexpected benefits.

Most organisations have been focused on the obvious savings that come from replacing one component with a less expensive one.

And, in most instances, although they have taken this approach as far as it can go, they are still under pressure to deliver IT solutions for less money.
 
An industrialised approach to IT gets at costs that most organisations now do not even see.
It does this by focusing more broadly on how the work itself can be performed differently and better, so that IT can become not just more efficient, but also a source of value by delivering superior, often innovative, solutions.