Sourcing Insights with a Dutch Twist

This blog is a small excerpt from the second chapter of the book I’m writing on Business IT convergence. One of the topics this chapter discusses, is the need to identify and unlock the value which is embedded within the context of the demand of the business for a new IT solution. When designing and building new IT solutions, all questions from IT (and its external suppliers) for the business were traditionally focused on the functionalities. The business rules, the business process, the interface and data that have to be translated into a working IT system. The context of the demand (e.g. relative importance of time-to-market versus efficiency) is typically considered to be of little importance. This was and is indeed the case for situations where IT is used to automate business processes; the traditional sweet spot for IT. With IT increasingly used by the business to compete in market space and technology changing complete business models, the context of the business demand become