The word Center of Excellence (CoE) has been prevalent in the IT arena for a long time. There have been many CoE success stories and organizations are still singing the song of its glory! It has just become like a common member in the family – a CoE as must-have for any organization. I myself have witnessed and been a part of it in my short journey of 5.5 years in IT.
As it is at times also a non-delivery entity, it is sometimes mocked as Center of Entertainment as well … (on a lighter note: no offence meant). However, this will not be the case if we can exploit and explore the differences it can bring along the IT journey of the organization.
But somehow, at the back of my mind I feel it should be called the “Center of Difference or CoD”. Agreed, it may sound very RADICAL but pause for a moment and think aloud… by the word “excellence” are we in fact self-proclaiming it!
Every other company, our peers, our customers: everyone tries to showcase the same excellence and this is of course appreciated. But from a services company’s perspective, it sounds more appropriate as to what difference we bring on the table compared to our peers, who also boast about their excellence (which we cannot deny) and benefit their customers.
Well, when I talk about “Center of Difference or CoD” it is basically :
- The difference we bring on to the table for the customers;
- The difference in thoughts we have compared to our peers;
- The difference in the benefits we can offer to the customer for a similar solution in the market;
- The difference in the thought process in how we approach a solution/business scenario;
- And most importantly: the difference we can bring to the client with our Approach and Excellence we are proud of.
This just brings on to say, as an organization “How different we THINK and deliver the same solution, using the best technologies and at a more cost effective way than our competitors”
I totally agree that it may sound rather absurd and irrelevant – but it’s just a thought, thinking aloud from a Center of Excellence perspective – a jargon more pronounced in a software firm.
So what do you think? Please do pour in your thoughts and suggestions you have on this “Center of Difference”!
Happy Thinking! 🙂
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