Research Reports

Through primary and secondary research focused on Sustained Innovation, Agility, Risk Mitigation, Governance, Organizational Design, Extended Enterprise, and others, the BTM Institute advances the theory of Business Technology Management (BTM) and identifies management best practices that drive financial value by collaborating with leading practitioners and researchers through various research reports. The research thus becomes a bridge between management study and management practice. Highlighted below are some of the recent reports released by the BTM Institute.

To access research archives, please visit: http://btmexchange.btminstitute.org.

Recent Reports

The Transformation Triangle

Surviving by innovating, becoming more efficient and abandoning what is not working

Executive Summary

The hyper-competitive global marketplace of the 21st Century demands that organizations act in new ways. As companies such as GE are demonstrating, corporations must simultaneously 1) be innovative with products, processes and business models, 2) abandon activities that no longer make sense, and 3) perform the activities they continue as efficiently as possible. To accomplish this, a management framework is needed. This paper makes the case that a management framework is necessary to achieve this: one that prescribes the necessary organizational structures, decision-making processes and information at every level, from the board to the project team.

A full copy of this research report can be found at: http://www.btminstitute.org/pdf/The_Transformation_Triangle.pdf

Customer Centered Convergence

How a real business architecture can reveal an optimum customer strategy

Executive Summary

Creating more value for your customer, and generating more value from your customer, is the responsibility of the entire organization, not just the customer-touching units such as sales. What happens back in the supply chain, hidden from the customers view, must be part of a customer-centered strategy. And, as with any business process today, technology will be involved. To succeed, companies must manage business and technology as one. They need a management framework that converges the management of business and technology in every part of the organization to optimize customer value. The Business Technology Management Framework offers this, in particular a strategic enterprise architecture. Consisting of a business architecture and a technology architecture, it enables scenario planning and predictive modeling, which lead to wise investments. This is customer-centered convergence.

A full copy of this research report can be found at: http://www.btminstitute.org/pdf/Customer_Centered_Convergence.pdf

The Art and Science of Agility

Surviving the 21st Century by converging business and technology to achieve agility, resilience, and adaptability

Executive Summary

The frenetic pace of business today has reduced the life expectancy of corporations and the tenure of CEOs. The response has been a call for agility, the ability to move quickly to take advantage of change. But definitions of agility vary, and implementing it is difficult. Previous BTM Institute research showed that companies that had converged their management of business and technology realized higher profits and faster growth than their competitors. It further showed that these companies were agile. This paper builds on that research to examine the attributes of agility and how successful companies employ technology to achieve it. Agile companies create the processes and structures that allow them to know what is going on internally and externally. They then develop the mechanisms to act on that knowledge. Although technology is seen by some as the solution, the evidence is that agility is achieved through basic management principles, the imagination to see the organization in a different light, and a willingness to change. In the end, the proof of agility is survival in an ever more turbulent global environment.

A full copy of this research report can be found at: http://www.btminstitute.org/pdf/The_Art_and_Science_of_Agility_ReleaseOne.pdf

Business Technology Convergence Index

The role of business technology convergence in innovation and adaptability and its effect on financial performance

Executive Summary

Technology is a major expense in the modern corporation and is deeply embedded in every aspect of doing business. Moreover, it has become the critical enabler of strategic imperatives – to be agile, resilient and innovative. These responses to the hyper-competitive global economy are interrelated, and accomplishing them requires converging business and technology. This can be achieved through certain organizational “constructs,” i.e., management behaviors, which have been identified in research and confirmed in practice. These constructs establish a foundation on which corporations can build innovative business models, including those designed for developing parts of the world. And they ultimately yield superior financial performance for the enterprise as a whole. This BTM Institute research report introduces an index that highlights the connection between corporate financial performance and business technology convergence.

A full copy of this research report can be found at: http://www.btminstitute.org/pdf/Business_Technology_Convergence_Index_Final.pdf

Opinions and Reviews

BusinessWeek - Next: Innovation Tools & Trends

Mixing Biz with Tech: Profitable Management Mash-Ups

“A new report that recently crossed my desk from the BTM Institute, a four-year-old non-profit think tank, is a thought-provoking look at how many kinds of companies can move beyond simply being innovative and toward becoming more agile, resilient, and profitable by creating a management mash-up of their business and technology teams.”

- Reena Jana, BusinessWeek Innovation Editor on July 05, 2007

Forbes.com - Management

Technology Convergence Adds Value, Data Show

“Want to know more about why companies such as UPS, Wal-Mart and Starwood consistently best their competition?

The BTM Institute, a nonprofit research think tank, has released a research report showing that companies that converge business and technology reap great financial benefit when compared with those who don't.”

- Matthew Kirdahy on July 07, 2007

CIO Magazine - Management

Study Provides Evidence That Technology Execution Leads to Business Performance

“The fundamental problem when businesspeople use trendy phrases like agility, innovation, resilience and adaptability is that their meaning is not clear. Now the BTM Institute, a nonprofit think tank established to study how best to manage business and technology, has come up with a definition: consistent execution, with constant growth that’s tied to financial performance.”

- Thomas Wailgum on July 25, 2007

CIO Insight Magazine

More Evidence Alignment Pays

“The Business Technology Management Institute, a research think tank organized by Faisal Hoque, chairman and CEO of BTM Corporation, and boasting several top IT academics like James Cash, V. Sambamurthy and Robert Zmud, has released a study on the benefits of alignment and what the authors call "convergence," an even higher level of business-IT cooperation and coordination than mere alignment.”

-Allan Alter on Thursday, July 19, 2007