Dr. David Cohn is Director, Business Informatics at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center. He supervises a research team focused on modeling, transforming and integrating information and business structures for on demand solutions and directs IBM’s worldwide research strategy in support of Business Design & Implementation. Prior to his current position, Dr. Cohn directed IBM’s Austin Research Laboratory in Texas and served as Director, Strategic Projects at Armonk. Before joining IBM, he was Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering at Notre Dame.

Abstract:

IT expertise can do much more than build infrastructure, it can transform the business.

"Business Process Re-engineering", "Operational Excellence", and "The Adaptable Organization" all promise to transform the enterprise. However, to deliver value, the board room vision must be embodied in business operations and supported by data center reality. IBM's Model-Driven Business Transformation (MDBT), created by IBM Research, does just that. It uses disciplined, structured thinking to map an enterprise's objectives to its operations, formally specifying business design and clearly reflecting business intent. In its early applications, MDBT has reduced excess overhead in the operation of an IBM business service, fostered effective collaboration among product managers at a large retailer and enabled meaningful monitoring of data management for a major insurance company. MDBT links its model of business operations to a platform-independent IT model which can be mapped to various platforms, and is especially well-suited for service-oriented architectures. It has substantially reduced implementation effort and greatly simplified adaptation to changing business needs. It works because it moves IT thinking up the stack from implementing infrastructure to improving operations.