The Logic of Business Solutions
“Business Solution” is often used by Vendors to label their offerings
“Business solutions” is a word used by vendors of performance capital to group a combination of capital under a particular label to show how the solution can be utilized to produce business results. The logic is valid to the degree that it applies to the vendor offerings.
Business solutions are the individual items of capital that produce business results
The business is the utilization of capital in performance to produce value in results. The capital utilized in performance can be defined as business solutions. Therefore, the enterprise must take its own view of business solutions as the individual items of capital that are utilized to produce business results. Business solutions may also be called performance solutions to be utilized in performance.
The enterprise identifies some capital as separate entities today. Most enterprises maintain files on employees, assets, systems, cash, supplies, etc. Most other performance capital is not recorded or is labeled as “intangible assets”.
Defining business solutions as one set enables management of solution commonalities
Defining all performance capital as one set of individual business solutions enables the enterprise to maintain information on the commonalities of all capital utilized as business solutions, such as:
- The identifier and description
- The categorization and classification of the solution
- The costs of the solution in acquisition and support
- The charge for utilizing the solution to produce a result
- Time and costs of utilization
- Responsibilities for managing and providing the solution
- Performance indicators to measure the utilization and effectiveness of the solution
- Performance expectations from the solution
- Access to knowledge on utilizing the solution
- Performance problems encountered with the solution
Identifying and organizing business solutions within one set enables the enterprise to know all performance capital utilized in the business and to have the options to record solution development and improvement, account for solution utilization, know and charge out performance costs, evaluate the results produced by the solution, manage the effectiveness of the solution in producing a quality result, assess the worth of the solution, measure the return on the solution investment, and measure performance indicators against expectations.
Capital must be defined as discrete business solutions to be organized and managed
In order to measure and manage performance capital, it must be defined as discrete business solutions. This includes all tangible and intangible capital. There are three important factors to consider in the definition of a business solution:
- The integrity as a solution that can be applied to specifically identified results or redeployed from one result to another. If part of a solution can be moved to produce another result, two solutions must be defined
- The management and support capabilities required for the solutions. Developing and supporting human capital requires different capabilities than supporting and maintaining equipment or deriving and building management intelligence. Solutions should be categorized by the kind of human capability capital needed to develop, support, and provide cost-effective business solutions to produce business results
- The need to integrate solutions deployed to a result into modules that can work together and be managed to produce the result. Some solutions must be put in place first in order to be ready to produce a result. Some solutions are only used when actually producing the result. Other solutions provide information and document the result produced
Business solutions are then defined to be utilized separate from other solutions, to be supported as capital by those with the capability required, and to be integrated with like solutions to produce specific results.
Business solutions are produced as results from capital development
Business solutions are specifically identified capital that has been acquired or developed as a result by the enterprise. Specific business solutions to be developed must be identified in the planning for investments and capital development projects. The solutions can then be identified as specific results to be produced by the capital development project.
At the end of the project, the result is closed out by implementing the result as a solution and assigning the cost of producing the result to the cost of acquiring or developing the solution. The solution is implemented by adding it to the set of performance capital with its own business solution identifier.
The specifically identified business solution can then be deployed in operation by relating the solution to one or more identified results that are produced by utilizing the solution.
Business solutions are managed and utilized with other business solutions to produce results
The logical definition of a business solution is a specifically-identified and managed item of capital in the set of enterprise performance capital that is integrated and utilized with other business solutions to produce one or more specific results.
July 18th, 2007 at 02:34
[…] Data is maintained on each business solution as indicated in the Logic of a Business Solution and on each business result as indicated in the Logic of a Business Result. This data enables the performance solutions utilized to be managed against the result produced to optimize the business. The enterprise can manage performance capacity used for result volume, performance costs against result value, performance effectiveness for result quality, performance uncertainty to reduce result risk, and performance expectations to reach result goals to optimize the business. […]