Tim GregoryOpinion
I blame Y2K. Normally by now I would have written to staff to
thank them for their contribution during the previous year and set
out our key objectives for the new year, but this year I have had
no time for quiet reflection.
In an effort to make up for lost time, I sought help from
members of TIF (Technology Infrastructure Forum) to identify the
"must dos" for 2000. A common theme is that 2000 will be the year
when infrastructure moves out of the IT department and into the
area of business-critical support for the e-business
revolution.
Part of the problem that TIF members identified is that
e-business is changing the definition of where infrastructure
starts and ends. Infrastructure is becoming increasingly critical
to the business and, correspondingly, more complex. In the
e-business world, infrastructure is the backbone of an organisation
and key to delivering a total service to end-users and
customers.
In order of priority here is the collective wisdom of TIF
members' top "must dos" for 2000.
Number one is ensuring that the business fully understands that
infrastructure is a critical part of the overall design and
delivery of any new business application and needs to be built-in
at the start.
There needs to be a clear understanding as to what can be
achieved and what cannot, in terms of operational performance and
resilience - the aim being to establish a roadmap for
infrastructure deployment and investment set against the needs of
the business.
Number two is security. A key deliverable in 2000 is the
development of a security framework which starts at the end-user
and goes right through to processing and data management. Failure
to convince the business that electronic trading can be secure is
seen potentially as a major barrier to the expansion of
e-business.
Next comes cost of ownership. With wireless technology set to
explode, and new faster data communication products coming on
stream, IT managers, as always, agree that a high priority is to
reduce, or at least contain, the cost of ownership. The key to this
is seen as automating the hell out of front-line and second-line
support services.
Fourth is that old chestnut, skills shortage. As the
infrastructure model grows more complex, fewer in-house departments
will be able to afford, let alone recruit and retain the necessary
levels of resources and skills to provide a total service.
Therefore, having a service sourcing game plan is seen by IT
managers as key to meeting the demands of the business and staying
one step ahead of the requirements. It is no longer enough to
simply have a resource utilisation plan. This must be coupled with
a plan for where the resource will be procured, covering training,
recruitment and in-house sourcing versus outsourced strategies.
Finally, at number five, is the small matter of getting a grip
on asset management - every IT manager's dream, but a nightmare in
reality.
The clear message from TIF members is that the top "must dos"
are all about service delivery. IT cannot hide behind the old
clich‚ that the business needs to tell us what it wants before we
can come up with a solution.
The e-business world is moving so fast that IT has to stay one
step ahead of the business and undertake pre-emptive investment. IT
departments must own the end-to-end service delivery and ensure
there is a total service proposition which encompasses performance
criteria, resilience, operational constraints, availability and
security - all wrapped inside a defined service level
agreement.
Tim Gregoryis head of IT at Lloyd's and
chairman of TIF