Web systems
management means
managing business
processes

The heart of many businesses today is the Web system, a set of business functions being delivered by any business with an online presence. Depending on the type of business, these functions range from online purchase to business partner access to account login. Despite the importance of the Web system, however, technologists and businesspeople are still struggling with how best to manage their Web-based business processes for competitive advantage.

IT organizations tend to see a set of back-end systems and infrastructure that they must keep running. Corporate management views the same system as a series of business processes that should help keep its organization competitive. Like oil and water, the two perspectives continue to coexist but rarely mix into one cohesive strategy. The end result: The quality of the Web users’ experience suffers.

With the advent of the Web, today’s IT department must constantly remind itself that it is part of the team that interfaces with customers. While consumer Web businesses understand this relationship, it is a new concept for many business-to-business companies.

Take the example of a B2B company that sells millions of dollars per week of raw materials to its partners/customers over the Web. In this scenario, the job of IT is not to create a new business model using the Web, but to replace or augment existing business processes with Web technologies—and to make the transition from the old process to the new without impacting sales or losing customers.

That is an important position for IT to be in, but it requires IT to think more about the processes, the customer and the business objectives than about the technology. The technical components are not unimportant; they are just secondary. In short, the technical components must be intimately tied to business processes, strategies and objectives. On the Web, business strategy and technological implementation must come together to deliver an optimal end-user experience.

CLOSING THE GAP

There are a number of means by which the gap between IT and the business manager can be closed. These include clearer articulation of Web business objectives, involvement of both technologist and businesspeople in establishing Web strategies and timelines, and frequent feedback loops to ensure that business objectives are being met.

The tools that are used to manage Web systems are also a critical element for closing this gap. Historically, IT staff has been given tools that focus on managing systems at a technical level. Traditional “point” tools present deep management data for a particular set of components: a database solution specifically for the database, or a network tool that focuses only on network components.

When this information is presented to the business manager, he quickly becomes overwhelmed and thinks that IT does not understand, is not listening or is interested only in technology for technology’s sake. IT has not been given the tools to respond to the needs of the business manager in a language that the business manager can understand.

To assure that a customer’s interaction with a Web application is a positive one, point technology tools that provide depth-of-management information need to be replaced with new tools that support the quick decision making required for businesses to survive today. Today, tools are needed that provide the right information, at the right time and with the right details to make decisions quickly to meet business objectives.

WEB HEALTH MANAGEMENT

The key is to manage the health of the Web systems from a business function, or Web application perspective. Web applications are functions of an online business, such as customer login, purchasing, inventory lookup or any other business process, delivered to a Web user.

To manage the health of a Web application, start with a focus on the end-user experience. The responsiveness and availability of a Web process are key metrics for assessing how well a company website is meeting business needs. If problems with response time or availability are uncovered (either within the data center or out on the public Internet), then a broad view of the performance of all the Web systems components that comprise a Web application is required.

Looking beyond the system, database or network component in isolation is essential. With a view across all of the Web technologies, the correlation of end-user service problems with the performance metrics of the underlying components can be used to perform root-cause problem isolation and resolution. Corrective actions can then be taken and the quality of the Web users’ experience improved.

As part of the continuing evolution of Web systems, IT departments have the opportunity to align their technology solutions with the company’s business strategy and encode existing business processes into Web-based processes. Companies that adopt a holistic Web system view of their business will reap the rewards, and those in IT who learn to focus on understanding, solving and communicating business processes will become invaluable assets to their companies in the future.

Yaman, an independent consultant with expertise in performance and availability solutions, is from Seattle, WA.