Industry Specific IT Strategy Consulting

IT Strategy for Financial Services

Financial services IT has been distracted from providing strategic differentiation to the business by tactics focused on radical cost-cutting and survival. Yet competition is at its high and it is defined by two critical aspects: superior customer service and financial and operational excellence. Next-generation core banking systems (CBS) can help achieve streamlined operations to reduce operating costs and enhance visibility across the organization. Financial excellence will also be based on an institutions’ ability to raise revenue from additional sources by continuously developing insights into customer needs and offering a variety of quality products and services. IT strategy can be a key to long-term business viability. For example, IT strategy can address questions such as:

• We are saddled with an underperforming CBS causing manual workarounds and a growing number of custom applications. Are we prepared to replace it?
• Will a customer relationship management platform improve service quality, identify the right sales strategies, and manage multiple customer contact channels while improving operational efficiency and reducing unit costs?

IT Strategy for Insurance

The harsh realities of the current economic climate dictate that insurers focus on how IT can maximize effectiveness and efficiency throughout the value chain—from collection of premiums to processing of claims. Today’s CIOs must not only keep an eye on compliance procedures and provision of undisruptive support for their company’s products and services, but also continuously develop enterprise data capabilities. Data-driven decisions for the purposes of fraud detection, pricing, and customer lifetime value will help secure insurance carriers’ profitability. A pragmatic IT strategy can help address these business objectives and answer questions such as:

• How can we improve service to independent agents/brokers?
• How can we deliver faster, simpler claims processing?
• How can we consolidate and centralize data to create a “single version of truth” for the entire organization?
• How can we reduce customer service costs with Internet information sites?

IT Strategy for HealthCare

The healthcare reform in the United States will place downward pressure on reimbursement rates, making it harder for hospitals to keep up with increasing competition as well as rising personnel, and technology costs. Complexities will emerge from managing the new reimbursement practice, which will reward hospitals for meeting stringent quality performance standards. Strategic investments in IT can provide a purposeful response to these transformational changes. To achieve this goal, hospital IT executives must ask the following questions:

• How do we navigate through the numerous technological, competitive, and logistical complexities of adopting electronic health records (EHR)?
• What are the benefits and the costs of integrating our various standalone, order-entry systems (e.g., e-prescribing) into the EHR?
• Given the cost and impact of an enterprise-wide IT system, how do we plan and manage the integration of department “silos”?
• Poor data quality is affecting the quality of patient care, causing problems with documentation, and increasing revenue collection cycles. How do we establish mechanisms that will detect and fix data errors and help prevent them in the future?

IT Strategy for Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

Strategic deployment of IT can have a lasting, positive impact on all stages of the pharmaceutical value chain, from drug discovery, development, manufacturing, supply chain, and distribution to marketing and sales. With clinical data being at the core of these activities, the pressure on all departments dealing with data management will intensify. The sheer volume of data, competitive pressure to push products to market faster, and mandatory compliance with regulations are only adding to that complexity. A pragmatic IT strategy can answer questions such as:

• How can the IT organization foster a climate of innovation with strategies focused on emerging technology?
• With a plethora of clinical trials underway, how do we keep up with the explosive growth in data and make sure that clinical data is available across my organization to save time, reduce costs, and facilitate compliance?
• How can our ERP system help us manage supply chain costs?
• As we embark on the e-marketing journey, how do we manage the risks (e.g., privacy leaks) that new technologies, including social medial tools, bring?

IT Strategy for Higher Education

These are demanding times for higher education institutions. Budget cuts, thinning endowments, and hiring freezes are occurring simultaneously with a growing number of student enrollments. What is most exciting about the industry today is that the time is ripe for IT to show its worth by enhancing organizational efficiency while realizing cost savings. To achieve this goal, IT executives must ask crucial questions:

• How can IT become a partner in government funding, grants, and research opportunities?
• Which products and services can be implemented to assist in cost savings?
• What level of customization is appropriate for our ERP system? Are open-source alternatives a viable option?
• Given the volume of data to be protected and decreased funding, how do we keep up with the expanding body of laws and regulations concerning information privacy and security?