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By Ziqi Liao and Michael Tow Cheung

CONCURRENT-CONVERGENT
STRATEGY in IT Consulting
The concurrent-convergent strategy in IT consulting can be exploited to
increase client efficiency, to draw conceptual and practical lessons for other
information-based applications, and to develop synergy between
IT consulting and business process reengineering.
THE concurrent-convergent strategy in IT con- procurement, analysis, communication, and use
sulting, as practiced perhaps most prominently by of information to efficiently implement the out-
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY) [8], can be comes. In particular, CGEY offers concurrent-
interpreted to follow from concurrence or parallel convergent consulting in the design,
attention, convergence or integration, and their construction, implementation, and support of
joint application to information systems design, information systems in business process solutions,
development, transformation, and management. customer needs analysis, and performance bench-
It seeks to increase client efficiency by imple- marking, under technical environments ranging
menting parallel and integrated information- from PC networks to mainframes, and local to
based solutions in business process development, global configurations. To ensure efficiency after
customization and enhancement, dedicated ser- systems installation, the strategy seeks to mobilize
vice support, and context-oriented R&D. The client resources in such a way that the effects of
concurrent-convergent strategy represents an external consulting are endogenously enhanced
essential element in the CGEY group’s efforts to over time. A maximized percentage of the firm’s
expand business horizons in manufacturing, human and physical resources is therefore drawn
telecommunications, finance, and other sectors. into the ambit of the concurrent-convergent strat-
In addition to enterprise resource planning, the egy, mainly by means of systems application man-
group has been extensively involved in communi- agement and reengineering. Given the role of data
cations and wireless Internet access, using its processing in modern business, emphasis is placed
expertise in channels and protocols involving the on application enhancement in central and dis-
Internet, email, interactive kiosks, and telephone tributed computing services at all levels. As a
networks. With the introduction of consultant corollary, high importance is attached to long-
certification procedures, training centers, skill term support. In the case of CGEY, its service
groups, and the Rapid Application Development contracts are typically comprehensive in scope,
initiative, it has established itself as an important covering both maintenance and enhancement.
business ally and partner of such market leaders as Applications have been consistently developed to
Cisco Systems, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun ISO 9001 standards and tailored to meet firm-
Microsystems [2, 4–7, 10]. specific requirements, with concurrence-conver-
During its evolution, the idea of concurrence- gence being efficiently exploited to interface
convergence has been applied to the relationships between clients and consulting teams.
and interactions between consulting and the Under the context-oriented R&D component
development, transformation, and management of the concurrent-convergent strategy, new and
of information systems. Concurrent consulting is advanced IT is continuously but selectively trans-
focused in parallel on information-based plan- mitted from laboratories to consulting teams.
ning and decision making: Simultaneously, the CGEY has implemented an innovative Applied
principle of convergence guides integration in the Knowledge Management (AKM) protocol to allo-

COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM September 2003/Vol. 46, No. 9 103


cate knowledge resources in decision making, opera- enabled and offers support and billing for customers
tions, and assignment of priorities. The AKM protocol online via a fiber-based network with high-speed digi-
also assists in aligning work and data flow to enhance tal traffic capacity in voice, data, and multimedia ser-
performance in problem solving, and assists in the vices. A continuous view of customers, products, and
deployment of solutions to facilitate the collection, network facilities can be maintained as a result, along
assimilation, and dissemination of information. The with payments status and information, all via a single,
objective in each application is to optimize the use of logical database.
knowledge to add market value in a given situation,
and to introduce best business practices in line with Conclusion
information regarding cultural and geographic charac- The concurrent-convergent strategy in IT consulting
teristics and differences. is characterized by parallel and integrated thinking. It
Since idiosyncratic requirements are often pre- draws upon total client resources and optimizes at all
sented, IT consulting is tailored to the firm’s interna- levels to meet the requirements of multidimensional,
tional and domestic environment, with R&D being internally and time-consistent planning, design, cus-
pursued globally in the first place, and region-specific tomization, adaptation, implementation, and
changes introduced with the subsequent assistance of enhancement of business systems and processes. Infor-
local inputs. This modus operandi reflects the view mation-based solutions seek to create fast-track imple-
that under concurrence-convergence, context-oriented mentation supported by outcome-optimal
R&D creates synergy and enhances the ability to pool instruments. The concurrent-convergent approach
technical expertise from different countries to produce can be generalized to draw conceptually and practi-
goods and services that can be marketed both locally cally useful lessons for other information-based con-
and internationally. R&D is therefore flexibly allo- sulting and service-provision applications, and to
cated and deployed to meet different requirements in develop synergy between IT consulting and business
different geographical situations. For example, given process reengineering. c
the increased demand in the Asia-Pacific region for
technically converged fixed/mobile telecommunica- References
tion networks displaying Internet capabilities, intelli- 1. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young introduces new knowledge management
offering, n-portal, based on Microsoft’s solution for Intranets. Business
gent billing, and customer relationship management, Wire (Jan. 10, 2002).
CGEY has been actively addressing problems arising 2. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young to provide IT services as part of IBM global
alliance relationship for Visteon. Business Wire (Mar. 4, 2003).
from packaged capabilities (especially wireless access 3. Cap Gemini sets up wireless Internet centre. Business Times Singapore
support), and the necessity to build business systems (Apr. 19, 2000).
according to different measures and standards in polit- 4. Cap Gemini and Oracle target telecoms. Cap Gemini Corporate Com-
munications (Jan. 2000).
ically and culturally diverse countries [3]. Recently, 5. Cap Gemini and Microsoft team up on e-business in new strategic global
CGEY has developed a n-portal, which can be readily alliance. Cap Gemini Corporate Communications (Feb. 2000).
6. Cap Gemini and Cisco Systems combine efforts in strategic alliance to
customized to facilitate work collaboration and help drive Internet economy. Cap Gemini Corporate Communications
knowledge sharing across the corporate intranet [1]. (Mar. 2000).
The award of a consulting contract worth 100 mil- 7. Cap Gemini joins Sun Microsystems iFORCE Initiative for helping
enterprise clients adopt an e-business face. Cap Gemini Corporate Com-
lion Singaporean dollars from StarHub demonstrates munications (Mar. 2000).
the value and effectiveness of the concurrent-conver- 8. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Company
Information 2000 (Aug. 2000).
gent strategy. This project, undertaken by CGEY Asia- 9. Cap Gemini wins $100m deal from StarHub. Business Times Singapore
Pacific’s Telecom and Media Solutions Center, is the (Apr. 13, 1999).
largest of its kind under way in Southeast Asia. Its 10. Sun Microsystems and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young combine world-class
experience and expertise for supply chain solutions. M2 Presswire (May 29,
ambit extends over the design, implementation, inte- 2002).
gration, support, and maintenance of advanced
telecommunications systems, especially in billing, cus-
tomer care, trouble management, and inter-carrier set- Ziqi Liao (zqliao@yahoo.com) is an associate professor in the
Department of Finance and Decision Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist
tlement [9]. Of particular interest is the fixed-mobile University, Hong Kong.
segment of the project, which includes customized Michael Tow Cheung (mcheung@econ.hku.hk) is an associate
planning and support in the design and integration of professor in the School of Economics and Finance, University of Hong
an inbound and outbound call center, front- and Kong, Hong Kong.
back-office subsystems, order entry and processing,
billing and accounting, automatic service provision- This work was financially supported under research grant number FRG/99-00/II-26.

ing, payments mediation, customer retention, and


trouble management. This subsystem is Internet- © 2003 ACM 0002-0782/03/0900 $5.00

104 September 2003/Vol. 46, No. 9 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM

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