The IT sector should throw off the shackles of the past
and look forward by adding value for our customers, instead of
waiting for the axe to fall, says Colin Beveridge.
Let’s admit it, we all know that the IT job sector is
shrinking faster than you can say “return on
investment”.
Very few companies are recruiting technology staff at the moment
and it seems that, for the foreseeable future, more and more
businesses will continue to downsize, shedding many good staff in
the process.
For those of us who wish to remain working within IT, our
long-term prospects may be extremely challenging, to say the least.
We do indeed live in interesting times.
Perhaps, though, this situation isn’t just the result of a wider
economic downturn.
Perhaps we are now experiencing a long overdue shakeout of a
bloated sector that has enjoyed incredible growth over a sustained
period, culminating in the investment frenzy of the late 1990s, fed
by Y2K and the dotcom bubble.
Or, perhaps, we are facing the first signs of computer industry
maturity, repeating the lessons learned 20 years ago by the
manufacturing and engineering industries.
That is how I see the current state of play - the technology
market is going through a major self-adjustment that will drive
down prices and salaries until it establishes a new equilibrium
between supply and demand.
So let’s not fool ourselves. This is not a blip on the radar
screen, it’s a fundamental change to the way our industry
works.
From now on, the market for technology skills, services and
products will be satisfied through radically new delivery channels,
largely empowered by technology - to overcome the historical issues
of cost and geography.
Now there’s irony for you. We are responsible for exposing
ourselves to competition by having done such a good job in the past
to lay such sound foundations for communications efficiency and
corporate infrastructure.
But it isn’t all just a question of new service channels and
opportunities for cost-saving.
The underlying challenge is that our corporate colleagues,
customers and paymasters have finally woken up to the reality of
technology, that IT is a tool, not a magician’s wand. And, like any
other tool, the genuine value of information technology is in the
skilled hands of the holder, not in the tool itself.
Furthermore, now that so many IT applications and services have
become more or less commoditised and widely available, the balance
of technology power has irreversibly swung away from the hands of
the “craftsman/technician” and firmly towards the commercial
managers of the business process.
The sooner we all recognise this new fact of life, the better,
because then we will have far more chance of remaining relevant to
our employers.
And there is only one way for us to be sure of being relevant –
by adding value.
After all, if we are not perceived to add value then,
collectively and individually, we will always be at risk of
substitution, or elimination.
I believe therefore that the first thing we have to do is to change
the way in which IT is regarded within our organisations.
At the moment, I suspect that far too many organisations see
their IT as a hindrance, and we have been our own worst enemies by
accepting our previously undervalued position as "costs” or
“overheads”.
No wonder then that we are struggling for the recognition that
we should deserve in the corporate pecking order.
We need to transform ourselves into a new value proposition and
the quickest way to do this is by getting rid of these old shackles
that have hampered us for so long.
Let’s start by chucking out the “negative” terminology applied
to the IT function, and forget about tags such as “cost centre” or
“corporate overhead”.
From now on we should refer to ourselves as “value centres”.
This is not a piece of simple badge engineering, though. We
can’t just hope to become valued overnight, simply by changing our
accountancy tags. If only.
No, we have to follow through with a radical overhaul of our own
IT functions – to ensure that we demonstrate genuine desire to ooze
added business value at every opportunity.
Another major problem is that for far too long we have tended to
organise ourselves into clusters around particular technology,
rather than into functional lines that our business colleagues and
partners can recognise easily and work with comfortably.
So let’s reorganise away from the technology lines, run our
departments as “a business within a business” and show the rest of
the company what we can really do to help them.
Believe me, it does work.
It is a simple fact that the most successful IT departments I
have observed over the past 20 years have been those that have
embraced a truly commercial approach to service delivery, even
where the nature of the encompassing organisation has not been a
strictly commercial operation.
I also think that the primary reason for their success has been
their desire to prove their value to their customers, rather than
meekly accepting the role of corporate cost-centre scapegoat.
The mission statement for a business-driven IT department is
simple, there is one absolutely fundamental question that each of
us should ask ourselves every day: how can I add persistent value
to a successful organisation?
As far as self-preservation is concerned, this question also
helps us individually to maintain our own personal value
proposition so that we can focus on a relevant future, instead of
continually looking over our backs waiting for the tap on the
shoulder.
In what ways have you added value to your company?
Tell us in an e-mail >> ComputerWeekly.com
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Colin Beveridge is an independent
consultant and leading commentator on technology management issues.
He can be contacted atcolin@colin.beveridge.name