Four Directions for the IT Department

Today, corporate IT doesn’t deliver what is expected and its position is undermined. Some tendencies have been initiated putting corporate IT at a fork in the road. The precipice is near. This left the IT department with four options: choosing for the right road, for a funny off-road path, for the dead-end way or for going completely off the road to fall into the precipice. More precisely:

• The first road can be described as holistic and systemic. It leads the IT department to a repositioned, reconsolidated and professionalised IT department that is capable to play its role entirely and take up its responsibility at the benefit of the company. The IT department is able to create a fertile environment to totally exploit IT. This approach is based on a holistic and systemic approach.
• The motto driving the IT departments on the second path sounds like “Delivering as fast as possible software applications matching the demands expressed by the business community". It’s a reactive approach. It’s about on-demand serving the business community. The role of the IT department is essentially a technological one. This is expected to offer a greater flexibility.
• The IT department driving road of externalisation. There are many shops along this road. The focus is on buying solutions and making use of services offered by external providers. These suppliers and the acquired solutions and services must still be managed. Imperceptibly the IT department will lose its authority and its competencies which are so valuable for the company.
• The fourth road leads the IT department straight to the precipice. It fails to play its true role, its acquisitions are failures and it fails to manage the services, solutions and suppliers. This would leave the business community very dissatisfied. This scenario may put the company in danger and is rather extreme.

In reality these are not four distinct roads. They are rather directions.

The IT department can evolve “by itself”. Or, it can also be consciously steered in one of these directions. Before making choices, it is important to understand the forces and the tendencies that influenced corporate IT and the IT departments.

 

 

Axel Vanhooren

Freelance IT Consultant