Technology evolution in business has been dazzling, but the real history of the evolution of business value is found in terms of the people who have been the decisive drivers of information usage.

1. Information Drivers
The Intellectual History of IT’s Business Value
An Archestra Notebook.
© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

2. I.T. Diversity as noticed by industry Analysts
The websites of analysts
will readily list and update
the dazzling array of IT
issues needing to be
coordinated for business
purposes.
In this example, our
reorganization of an
analyst’s list reveals its
attention to a virtual
management ecosystem
featuring critical
interactions of tools,
operations, and people.
This analyst focuses mainly
on new ways of doing
things about information.
© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

3. In a sense, nearly all of the varied I.T. usage
can be said to facilitate
business intelligence,
the day-to-day supply of “intellectual property”.
But increasingly, that property is ephemeral and is
not as important as the capability.
Business intelligence:
an umbrella term that includes the
applications, infrastructure and tools,
and best practices that enable access
to and analysis of information to
improve and optimize decisions and
performance.
Business intellect:
The standing combination of
opportunities and methods for
recognition and comprehension,
provided and sustained by people with
information technologies

4. And while it is a business objective to be smart,
The business goal of I.T. is not to be smart.
The business goal of I.T. is to influence.
Influence predisposes
what kind of value
gets created
by the business for the business.
Predispositions: strategy, targets, competencies, relationships, compatibilities…

5. Influence results from a party’s acceptance of
news, ideas, and instructions
that have become
part of awareness and expectations
Acceptance affects their decisions about
what to do and what to share
Awareness of those decisions and follow-ups
confirms existing parties, and reveals additional parties,
as future candidate donors and recipients
for more news, ideas and instructions

6. Historically, business designated certain parties to be
the primary donors and recipients of information
used to make decisions that created business benefits.
Those parties have been the information drivers.
And, the information was considered to be proprietary.
But now:
I.T. has become a commodity.
Today, all users of I.T. are
potentially significant donors or recipients.
I.T. users: Public Private Internal External Stationary Mobile Corporate Personal

7. Information donors and recipients are now virtually ubiquitous
and increasingly they are all major co-producers of
“the business intellect”
I.T. will find them
for the business
The business will facilitate and
privilege their participation,
through more I.T.
Responses evoke a
variety of scenarios
in which to produce
value
Who matters
Who responds
Who cares

8. I.T.’s Evolution of Business Value:
the Intellectual History

9. Making information practically valuable
Technology is needed to deal with the problems of:
• Information diversity (selected and composed),
• Information distance (available to location), and …
• Information utility (renewable and timely)
Five different generations of technology have tackled the same information problems (vs.
practicality and value) – but in different ways
In each generation, including the next one, making the technology systematic is an
engineering challenge
But more importantly, I.T. evolution also features, from one generation to the next, a
changing focus on who is driving information to create the most new value

10. Who are the key information people for the
business to influence?
I.T. Period Priority Information
Donor / Driver
Computing style or
platform
Production key Systematics
challenge
1960s Business Managers Mainframe Formulas Calculation
1980s Technicians Microsystems Protocols Connectivity
2000s LOB workers Enterprise Processes Workflow
2010s early External Customers Social Analytics Channels
2010s mid to later Public Personas Semantic Surveillance Recognition
The changing story of “which donor needs to be influenced” is one that shows
changes, over time, in business priority that were allowed by
the ongoing advancements of information technology.
In this story, Business moves progressively over time
from narrow control and prescription to widespread monitoring and prediction.
© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

11. The Intellectual “Properties” of I.T.

12. The technology of information
Information technology essentially applies the engineering of tools to the
engineering of information.
An engineering lifecycle reaches backwards from the defined solution needed by
an information user with a problem, to the opportunity for solution development.
But as diversity increases amongst users and problems, solution opportunities and
providers also diversify. Choices, and therefore uncertainty, also increase. The
scope of what qualifies as being significant grows larger and larger.
Therefore, based on existing and expected information, “Business” typically must
propose which problems to solve, in order to convert significance into benefits.

13. The practice of information
Consequently, the first business use of I.T. is to address the question:
“what do we think we need to know?”
Results that are successful relative to others become preferred.
Competition and Quality drive a business intent to make successful information
usage captive and exceptional, held by the business and kept away from others.
Accordingly, the business treats what it knows as an asset: “intellectual property”.
But with I.T. there are dual challenges: what to know (i.e., intelligence), and how to
know it (i.e., intellect).

14. INTELLIGENCE vs. INTELLECT
Intelligence:
the ability to acquire and apply knowledge
and skills.
Business intelligence:
an umbrella term that includes the
applications, infrastructure and tools,
and best practices that enable access
to and analysis of information to
improve and optimize decisions and
performance.
Artificial intelligence:
the theory and development of
computer systems able to perform
tasks that normally require human
intelligence, such as visual
perception, speech recognition,
decision-making, and translation
between languages.

15. INTELLIGENCE vs. INTELLECT
Intellect:
the faculty of reasoning and understanding
objectively
Artificial intellect:
Documentation, Designs, and
Programming, a.k.a. Content, often
considered to be intellectual property
(“IP”)
Business intellect:
The standing combination of
opportunities and methods for
recognition and comprehension,
provided and sustained by people with
information technologies

16. THE REAL VALUE OF INFORMATION: MEANING
Semantics:
the meaning or relationship of meanings of
a sign or set of signs
Business intelligence:
an umbrella term that includes the
applications, infrastructure and tools,
and best practices that enable access
to and analysis of information to
improve and optimize decisions and
performance.
Business intellect:
The standing combination of
opportunities and methods for
recognition and comprehension,
provided and sustained by people with
information technologies
I.T. evolution increasingly allows anyone to seek, identify and communicate meaning.

17. The value of Information Practice

18. Applied Intellect:
create Meaning to create Value
When it comes to the “Business Intellect”, technology impact on
business information has always been interesting in three key ways.
• Capability is driven more often by the complexity of information than
by the amount of information
• The value of processed information is differentiated more often by
location than by uniqueness
• The most powerful use of held information is to replace it on time

19. The Practical Reality of Intellect
More information is not necessarily better
• Capability is driven more often by the complexity of information than
by the amount of information
• The most coveted know-how has been hard to achieve.
• Producing unusual information is more often about composition than
about hoarding

20. The Practical Reality of Intellect
The importance of information is relative, not absolute
• The value of processed information is differentiated more often by
location than by uniqueness
• Having information in hand produces decisions, and decisions
produce differences of advantage or risk
• The probability of targeted availability needs to be built into the
production

21. The Practical Reality of Intellect
Information is perishable
• The most powerful use of retained information is to consume it on time
• Trading old information for new is rarely useful except across different
parties; the exception is when news generates insight
• The best information “asset” is something that is better than what was
there before; if information is not replaceable then it is not an enduring
asset

22. The “Best” Information is practical, but…
HARD TO
MAKE
PUT IN THE
RIGHT HANDS
AGGRESSIVELY
RENEWED
and
and
and
location
timeliness
complexity

23. The “Best” Information is valuable, because…
HARD TO
MAKE
PUT IN THE
RIGHT HANDS
AGGRESSIVELY
RENEWED
and
and
and
Decisions
Insights
Know how

24. The next “Normal”

25. Information donors and recipients
are now virtually ubiquitous,
and increasingly they are all
major co-producers of the
business intellect

26. The I.T. capability
Business needs information engineering to
be enabled by technology engineering
• To influence information drivers, feedback
is the primary objective of business
information engineering
Identifying and influencing information
donors and recipients underlies the
decisions that create the business benefits
(higher advantage, lower risk) from
discovered or manufactured opportunities
• Donors and recipients are inside and
outside of the organization and are also
influencers
Discover and
influence donors
and recipients
Predict and develop
their opportunities
Shepherd
advantages and
risks of their
response
© 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research

27. “Value” is a performance, not property
• Donors and recipients of significant information are now virtually
ubiquitous but often unidentified
• I.T. will find them for the business
• The business will facilitate and
privilege the donor’s participation
through more I.T.
• Privilege requires solving
information problems for donors
in “real time”

28. In business semantics (the real-time creation of meaning),
all I.T. users are now both donors and influencers
BUSINESS
INFLUENCE
Intelligence Intellect Intellect Interaction
Information status shared internal external privileged
objective Prediction Interpretation Promotion Decision
operations Surveillance Profiling Proposal Priority
function Monitoring Pattern recognition Design Preference
ability Sensing Detection Indication Proof
Continually earned
and renewed
Highly time-sensitive Subject to sudden
remodeling
Frequently
negotiated
INFORMATION VALUE
Increasingly, I.T. evolution means that every I.T. user participates in the full range of abilities,
functions and operations that create or recognize meaning, and thus value, from information
©2014MalcolmRyder/archestraresearch

29. The Next Normal
• The next wave of I.T.’s business value identifies parties as donors who have not
even yet identified themselves as such, and solves their information problems
• I.T. is a commodity; all users of I.T. are potential information drivers
• Decisions by information donors and recipients predispose business performance
• Results are increasingly less proprietary but they can be privileged
• Solving information problems for donors and recipients “buys” business feedback
• Interaction Privilege with Information People is the new I.P. of I.T.

30. © 2014 Malcolm Ryder / archestra research
mryder@malcolmryder.com