Managing converging technologies requires system health

High Technology Companies often struggle with the effective integration of systems and processes and effective convergence of diverse technologies. By utilizing a management model which is analogous to the functioning of an organism at cellular and tissue level, diverse organizational processes, technologies and system functions can be integrated successfully. For a human body the following holds: All cells, processes and functions in the diverse and highly specialized tissues of the organism have to function harmoniously, be adaptable to diverse environmental conditions and have to be ailment-free if top performance is to be expected. The organism is fully capable of achieving this, if a few critical characteristics are optimized and when supplied with the correct nutrients and sufficient supply of oxygen by means of the blood and the body's circulatory system. In the case of an organization this translates into business units or sections and to every individual in the organization, each with its own mix of multi-disciplinary functions, its applicable technologies, subsystems and processes that have to be sustained with the overall strategic intent, the correct and appropriate business information and effective competencies. Collectively these have to function harmoniously, concurrently and with high efficacy for the organization to consistently outperform the competition. The paper describes the management model referred to as System Health Management Model in which the emphasis is placed on a living organism's key characteristics causing it to reach consistent top-performance. A top-performing, correctly nourished, living organism is characterized by being networked, self-organised, self-regulated, highly optimized and self-healing. By judiciously choosing and correctly managing analogous characteristics for the organization, technology convergence and system performance is greatly enhanced.