Solution Customization

Customization involves fit and alterability and is based on understanding the commonality and variability (clv) across industries, geographies, customers, and systems. This paper argues for an emphasis on clv through a customization life cycle, from engineering customizable assets, components, and solutions to supporting their effective deployment. Examples of systems that focus on customization through clv are given. These examples are described using the customization life cycle and show what mechanisms are most useful in each phase. T oday enterprises are facing many forces that compel them to take a larger view of their systems. These forces include globalization, " buyouts, " regulatory changes, commerce, cost, multiple customer access channels, product development cycles, changing business processes, etc. This larger systems view is creating a need to break down the application " silos " ' that exist today in a cost-effective and low-risk manner. Companies are asking for help from their own internal information systems (IS) organizations as well as from external services consultants, product developers, and packaged solutions vendors. External services consultants (Andersen Consulting, Electronic Data Systems, IBM) can bring many resources to help in creating customer solutions, from intellectual-capital assets, to hardware and software products and components, to packaged solutions, and finally to newly emerging component-based packaged solutions. For effective and profitable use, these items must be customizable to fit customers' requirements and environments. Developers of these customizable resources need guidelines: what is cus-tomization and how can it be implemented success-fully? Customization involvesfifit and alterabiliQ and is based on understanding the commonality and variability (c/v) across industries, geographies, customers, and systems. This paper introduces a customization life cycle, and through examples shows what mechanisms are most useful in each phase of the life cycle. A subsequent section of the paper focuses on the mechanisms themselves. Successful, profitable creation and deployment of solutions across multiple customers, industries, and ge-ographies is dependent on observing this customi-zation life cycle. Focus on a customization life cycle and c/v is already beginning to permeate the custom-izable solutions developed in IBM, and this work will continue. Wopyright 1999 by International Business Machines Corporation. Copying in printed form for private use is permitted without payment of royaltyprovided that (1) each reproduction is done without alteration and (2) the Journal reference and IBM copyright notice are included on the first page. The title and abstract, but no other portions, of this paper may be copied or distributed royalty …