Two recent articles, talking about IT from two very different perspectives, paint an altered view of IT that I believe is compelling.
InfoWorld published an article on April 2nd entitled, "IT heresy revisited: Let users manage their own PCs." The article poses a simple, yet radical idea - why not let the increasingly tech savvy workforce choose and manage their own workplace environments? Having started on the infrastructure and ops side of the house, I'm well armored with all of the canned responses: non-standard environments increase support costs, user managed desktops create an unmanageable security risk, etc., etc. These are surely valid concerns, but I believe that in the end we will find that they are outweighed by the benefits to be realized by empowering users to employ the tools best suited to their jobs and by simultaneously relieving IT of a high resource, low value responsibility. The article discusses the first steps that companies like Google and BP are taking in this direction and what they are finding.
In truth, I believe that most of the canned resistance you hear on this and related topics is driven more by a sense of fear and job security than anything else. The thinking goes, if the users are handling this by themselves, then what will we do? The irony is that the significant amount of resources, energy and attention that IT has paid to these "lights on" operational duties is the very thing that inhibits IT's ability to truly leverage technology to drive value for the business.
Another article in Baseline Magazine entitled, "IT Really Does Drive Business Value" reports on the findings of a study to be release on Monday (April 7th) by the Hackett Group. It finds that those organizations that best manage IT business value significantly "outperform their competition across a wide range of financial and profitability measures." It's common sense, really. Focus your IT investments in those areas that are going to drive business value and create competitive advantage - and the results will follow.
The article identifies four key practices that are key to maximizing the business value of an organization's IT investments:
But while this sounds perfectly reasonable, putting it into action within an IT organization can be very difficult. Which leads us back to the first article.
The real challenge is that IT needs to create a new self image. It needs to be willing to step away from those areas that no longer provide strategic value to the enterprise and focus its energy in those areas that will. It means that IT needs to get over the idea that anything to do with "technology" must fall within their domain and identify those areas where they can provide significant differentiation. According to the Baseline article, doing so is a key indication that you're moving in the right direction:
Companies that are leaders in IT management also spend a substantially smaller fraction of their capital expense on infrastructure and utilities, leaving more investment for improvement and innovation. While the largest part of the peer groups’ IT investment is earmarked for infrastructure refresh, the top group invests the majority of its capital on “innovation and improvement,” most often in the form of discretionary projects.
This transformation is not easy. Moving away from the day-to-day tasks that have been the staple of IT operations (infrastructure and applications) is tough because it takes people out of their comfort zone and into uncharted waters. But the rewards are real and substantial - both for IT professionals and for their organizations. It just takes a willingness to alter your view of IT.
Comments