Oil Geeks

From a technical point of few, a lot of us describe ourselves as SharePoint Architects, or Consultants or Developers. But one thing I have learned from many years trying to understand the use and Business benefits of Information Technology is that, in most cases the business decision maker, or the layer of Governance and Business Strategy do not view the problems we are trying to Solve with the same language.

Let us look at what we are trying to solve and the products itself.  The tool is just a tool to a defined end result.  This as been a great focus for many years for me. How to bring quantifiable business benefits. And our currency is information. The data which flows through the business. Whether that’s documents, Invoices,Geographical images, spreadsheets or CRM.

When we think about Document Management, Digitalization of business forms, Workflow, Content Management, ERP – what the business is thinking is- how does our business based information work and flow the business processes.

I had one situation where I was doing a contract for a furniture company and the CEO came in to see me. His only question was one thing.

Will it help me sell more Chairs?

This thought opens a door in my mind to how technical solutions are viewed outside pure technical people.
In short – if we are to understand and bring benefits to business, if that is our goal then we must are Information Architects and not hide behind a wall of techno understanding. That is not so specific to the technology product used (i.e. SharePoint, EDMS, SAP ERP, Dynamix AX)

Or as a great Quote by Albert Einstein which I think relates to knowing and understanding:-
“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”