CIT’s Problem 6: The Position of the IT Department

The role of the IT department may be to support other business functions. It’s a second class role.

The IT department is only considered as a cost centre.

The CIO is not always considered as one of the main managers of the company. For example, he/she might not be invited when the company’s strategy is established.

The IT department copes with a wrong system belief about IT, about the IT people and about the IT department.

Most non-IT people do not understand the IT department and IT.

There is a communication gap between the IT department and other business department.

Furthermore, the IT department has to face the pressure coming from the business, limited resources, technology that gets older in only a few years, continuous innovation of IT, technologies and products on the market and the existence of legacy systems.

The IT department must organise itself, for example define, learn and improve its processes, methodologies and methods.

It is hard to find really skilled people in IT.

The IT department must train its people. Its people should improve their skills.

The IT department has a bad reputation.

The IT department bears an enormous responsibility. Information systems cost a lot in building and in keeping them operational. A well designed information system can maximising its business value. On the other hand, a badly designed system can increase the cost of operation as well as the cost to allow the system to evolve. A failure of a business critical application or computer may cost the company really huge amounts.