McKinsey on IT

Better operating models for financial institutions
Financial institutions are under pressure to expand their business volumes while maintaining or reducing the cost of transactions. Operations and IT executives in the financial industry typically respond by implementing discrete cost reduction or performance-enhancing measures, such as offshoring and lean techniques. A more effective transformation will come if financial institutions redesign the operating model they apply to their processes from end to end, from customer interface to back-office transactions. Download

Merging bank operations across borders
Bank mergers are on the rise in Europe, but the operations and IT systems of most banks are unsuited to integrating new acquisitions efficiently. The banks’ IT and operations are often unnecessarily complex and haphazardly constructed on layers of projects — an architecture that makes it difficult to integrate newly acquired institutions. Some banks have reduced costs by consolidating to build scale or by offshoring, but few have comprehensively redesigned their entire operating model. A larger-scale transformation is more difficult but positions banks to make the most of their operations investments and absorb new acquisitions more quickly. Download

The overlooked potential for outsourcing in Eastern Europe
With less than 1 percent of the world’s $30 billion market for offshore IT and business process outsourcing (BPO), Eastern Europe lags far behind more prominent locations, including India, Ireland, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Our research suggests that this may soon change: demand for offshoring among Western European companies rose by half from 2004 to 2006, with Eastern Europe emerging as a favorite destination. Download

Interview with the CIO of Credit Suisse
Tom Sanzone, the CIO of Credit Suisse, explains in the interview how his broad authority within the company helps keep IT aligned with the business strategy. Download

How telecoms can get more from Internet Protocol
Telecommunications companies are transforming their network platforms by adopting Internet Protocol (IP) technology to enable new services like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and TV delivered over IP. Few companies have made this expensive shift pay off, but companies do better when they embrace the change as a transformation of their business, not a simple technology upgrade. Telcos should use the shift to IP as an opportunity to rethink their operating model, simplify their network architecture, and standardize their products. They also must teach their sales teams how to sell solutions and demonstrate the full value of the new technology to keep customers during the migration. Download

What’s on CIO agendas in 2007: A McKinsey Survey
Two trends in information technology will become increasingly important to CIOs in 2007: a migration to service-oriented architectures and the introduction of leanmanufacturing principles to data center operations. These are among the results of our most recent survey of senior IT executives. The survey asked CIOs and other senior executives in North American companies about their plans for the coming year. Download