Spreading Your Wings in a World of Silos - Part 1

I have been reflecting on the past year; the challenges, the opportunities, the success, the failures, and my own growth. I have been thinking about the future; the various paths an IS/IT career provides, the trends for the future, the state and potential of various industries, and where I want to become in 5 years.

My reflection and my future vision have a common thread: "Spreading your wings in a world of silos." What triggered me to focus on this topic was a posting from Tim Brown, CEO of IDEA. In the article, Tim talked about his career choice and how it helped him in becoming where he is today. The writing truly resonated with me because I understand where he was coming from and the decision he took. I'm going to break this into two parts - Part 1 and Part 2. And I use my experience to frame and provide my own personal AHA moment.

Part 1

In the classical view of IS/IT, we always start as a specialist in a field - the network guru, the developer guru, the application guru, and so forth. Depending on the technology we are first introduced to, we are identified with a product or vendor for a majority of our lives - the SAP guru, the Microsoft guru, the Oracle guru, and so forth. And in certain organisational structures, we are also grouped into specific roles - support, project, business analysis, architecture, pre-sales, account management and the like.

Back when I graduated college 7 years ago, I was very short sighted and was dead set on being a 'business analyst'. When I joined my first and current employer (Philip Morris), it was an SAP based role. For the first few months, my role started out with performing support directly performing code development and configuration supporting manufacturing and supply chain. It was far from the role of 'business analyst' I envisioned based on my lecturer words or what my other friend said. In hindsight, doing the things I didn't like actually set me up for success in the role I wanted.

Fast forward into late 2008. I had been doing development and configuration, taking soft skills and technical training, and starting to become good in the technical side of SAP. Suddenly, I was asked to join a program implementing SAP ERP into one of the biggest affiliates of Philip Morris in Asia for 2 year. When the roles were assigned and describe, it was the 'business analyst' role I envisioned. Back then, my manager told me 'I was ready' and I would go on to understand what he meant.

Because I started as a support guy and I was agnostic to SAP modules, I could make prototypes in SAP to support a manufacturing or supply chain process. In the project, the local implementation team and partners would ask me what modules I knew. That's when I realised that people really wanted to be identified with the labels of MM, PP, PP-PI, LO, CO, FI, and so on. To me, those were the first silos I had - the silos based on modular expertise.

And my First AHA Moment came: At the end of the day, a business manager in charge of manufacturing or supply chain sees SAP as one tool. Whatever solution you build, must work across modules. And my Second AHA Moment came: You need to be able to talk the same language, understand the business process, and appreciate the role the business user plays. Whatever solution you build, know that it's there to help some do their job or achieve a goal. I am so grateful for those 2 years because it helped to form my mindset of always wanting learn, 'spread my wings', and go across silos.

Fast forward into 2010 and 2011. I have been a subject matter expert in process of manufacturing, supply chain, and finance only in SAP. Now, I was leading project delivery for multiple SAP projects and ensuring the integration with manufacturing execution systems. We were separated into teams implementing SAP and another implement Apriso FlexNet. However, I felt some vibes from teams when we had problems or issue - 'it's their issue', 'it's their system problem', 'their data is wrong', etc. This was the second silo experience I had - the silo based on different technology focus.

Then, I had my Third AHA Moment came: business users may execute an activity that runs across multiple systems. A successful solution is a set of systems interacting with one another, transparent to the user, that allows them to do their roles. And, it is up to me as an individual to make all parties aware. When System A and B are part of a solution and managed by two different support teams, they need to respect and understand how their systems interact. I can assure you that the business managers care about the solution - the sum of the parts of various systems.

If the patching schedule of a Microsoft SQL Server is going to disrupt the manufacturing execution system then, as lead, I will ask them to reschedule looking for a factory closure or have a good reason for shutting down the factory in normal day to day. If the escalation would go up within the department managing server and then I am asked to explain, I would show them the manufacturing schedule and targets for the year. My Fourth AHA Moment came: the focus of IS/IT should be on the customer or end business user - If you work for an organisation where IS/IT is an enabler, remember the world 'enable'. You must enable your customer or the business user to achieve their goals.

I'll stop there with 4 AHA Moments. Thank you for reading. Comments below for any feedback or discussion.