When I think about the opportunities that exist today for businesses to really leverage technology for true business benefit, and then think about IT departments and the experience that the business has dealing with their IT departments, we've made very little progress in having internal IT departments really be an extension of the business, that enables and enhances the businesses ability to fulfill on their mission and objectives.
I just came across a Forrester Research report from April of this year, entitled,"IT and Business Alignment: Are We There Yet?" by Craig Symons.
My reaction to that whitepaper was one of irritation. Craig's solution is measure, measure, measure -- and yes, while Information Technology and systems need to be measured, the suggestions for measurement that include "the number of joint IT/business unit planning meetings or the number of IT steering committee meetings", because "Holding frequent meetings between IT managers and business unit managers will bring more opportunities to the surface and solidify a comfort level", fail to have me understand how there will be better alignment at all. It's like saying, "let's form a committee to address this" -- and we all know our reaction to that statement -- and it isn't that things will move forward easily and smoothly, or be more effective.
George Eby Mathew , in his blog called "Guruspeak: Why IT Management Matters", posted a topic in June of this year, Getting Beyond the Futile Debate: Making IT matter, and I've summarized a few key items from that post:
- “Not long ago, IT systems were viewed as the most difficult element to change when implementing large, strategic projects. IT is sometimes viewed as the most difficult to change rated equally with corporate culture. And from the perspective of the senior management IT gets in the way of getting important things done.” In my experience, one of the big problems with IT folks is that they love to analyze a problem to death -- and then apply the textbook perfect solution -- except that in reality - it is the source of failed projects! Don't get me wrong, the antithesis is also true -- where IT doesn't do the thinking, and slaps a system into place that creates more problems than it solves in the name of being "responsive" and "giving the business what they need."
- “Technology must enable changes to achieve either business-valued cost reductions or revenue-enhancement results to matter. We know IT does add value because poor IT decisions can detract from equity value while good IT decisions can add to equity value.” Exactly.
The issue facing IT and the business it supports is a thorny one. For as long as I can remember, business people have an adverse reaction when IT is mentioned, like they don't and won't ever understand technology, and the IT department oftentimes has an arrogant attitude about how technology "ought" to be delivered to the business.
What's needed are business people who understand the ways that technology can benefit their business and can challenge IT to provide what they need.
What's needed are CIO's that understand the business as well as technology AND can cultivate people in their IT groups that can actually identify the real "problem" that needs to be addressed -- which many times is different from what the business will say is the problem -- so you've got to be two-headed about it -- serve the business users, and deliver what they need (not necessarily what they say they need) -- and you know you've done this when they are delighted by what they get and it makes their job easier.
Finally, there needs to be some common sense applied to how technology is selected and delivered, so that the business doesn't wait forever for IT to deliver what it needs.
And quite possibly, IT could leverage outside expertise much more effectively, and reduce the backlog that frustrates their business counterparts. While written from a marketing perspective, a recent post at the Marketing Interactions blog, entitled Effective Marketing IT Projects with Limited Expertise addresses this from a business user perspective, and introduces what is possible.
What's your experience with leveraging technology effectively -- and working with your IT groups?
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