Approach strategic decisions with both a long-term and short-term perspective CTOs are very familiar with the need to achieve measurable return on all IT investments. So there’s a definite temptation to go for quick technology fixes that look good on this year’s bottom line. But it is critical, if not as immediately visible, to make the best decisions for the longer term — to identify and implement solutions that fit the organization’s overall business strategy. What we’re talking about here is, in effect, two-tier thinking. It isn’t a new concept, but it’s one that’s easy to lose sight of when confronting in-your-face challenges. CTOs who do combine strategic perspective with the reality of reporting positive near-term results can get two-tier results as their payback. Case in point: Less than a year into my tenure as CTO with 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union, the company was facing what was rapidly becoming a crisis. Internally, I’m charged with ensuring a secure, reliable, efficient network processing environment for just less than 200 credit union employees who are the direct information users. On the external business side, our IT organization is responsible for delivering and maintaining electronic self-services delivery channels such as home banking, bill payment, ATM, and debit and credit card processing for 55,000 credit union members. In an increasingly competitive financial services market, the external business electronic delivery components loomed very large as key to the growth of 1st Advantage. But the immediate problem was closer to home. Simply put, the new Compaq server that was the hub of the network just couldn’t support our business flow. To get information from the server distributed to the end-user in the formats needed to do business, our IT staff was working round-the-clock shifts and, even then, information delivery delays to our frontline employees were causing customer lines to form on key business days. The quick fix to solve the immediate problem would have been to add another server. But the expense and delays inevitable with such a purchase could have had a negative impact both on strategic plans to expand transactional input points for the network and on future additions to Web delivery channels for consumer services. Instead, we opted for a software-based approach and selected Cambridge, Mass.-based InterSystems and Valley Forge, Pa.-based Users as our vendor partners. By leveraging the RAD features of InterSystems’ high performance Caché database, we were able to integrate the technology into our information system in just two months at a cost of $30,000. And Users’ Caché-based DataSafe/SQL software made it possible to dramatically streamline the process of extracting data via SQL queries. The bottom line? Data extract and analysis processes that initially required as many as 14 hours now can be accomplished in as little as 20 minutes, and users are handling their own reports rather than depending on IT resources. Also, we extended the life of the server by several years without compromising on performance. The $250,000 that would have been required for that purchase can now be invested in building new applications that are key to the credit union’s market success. That’s the strategic business ROI. Instead of merely a new piece of hardware, we now have a technology infrastructure that can support the new electronic delivery channels that our members demand as well as support the growth resulting from new application implementation. In the three years since we moved to the new database technology, transaction volume has increased about 40 percent from 500,000 to 700,000 transactions per month — and most of the growth has come from new channels such as Internet banking and debit card authorization. Software DevelopmentDatabasesTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business