Aligning IT with the business is a mantra of many IT
directors and chief information officers. But consider this: how
many chief financial officers would ever say they are aligning
finance with the business?IT is the business.
Regardless of how closely IT products and services are tied to
the real needs of the business, if senior management does not
clearly understand what IT is doing, it will be treated as a cost
centre. And any IT department that is still considered a cost
centre risks being outsourced.
It is no longer sufficient just to manage and be managed from
the top down, from boardroom to IT department. CIOs and IT
directors are change agents for their businesses. They must speak
in terms of value, finance and return on investment across the
business or risk losing their credibility.
Leading CIOs in Global 2000 enterprises and government agencies
have shifted senior management’s perception of IT from a cost
centre focused on increasing organisational efficiency to a value
provider focused on winning competitive advantage for the
organisation.
Focusing on value requires a strong risk management programme,
covering regulatory risk (the need to meet specific regulatory and
legal reporting and financial monitoring requirements), financial
risks (mostly traditional insurance-related risks), and business
risks (the risks associated with gaining and maintaining
competitive advantage and identifying and capitalising on new
opportunities).
Very few CIOs understand the importance of engaging the business
in meaningful dialogue on hot business topics such as corporate
governance and the impact of legislation on the business. Look at
how IT can have an impact in each and every business unit, each and
every department.
What will be the impact of the
US Patriot Act, International Accounting Standards, Sarbanes
Oxley and Basel II?
When it comes to transforming the culture of IT within an
organisation and winning senior executive buy-in, perception is
reality. CIOs and IT directors need to change the perception of the
IT department, both inside it and throughout the business,
particularly at senior management level.
Do not forget the staff either. CIOs and their IT leadership
team often give this vital area less attention than it deserves.
Efficiently run IT operations need IT directors and CIOs who are
focused on creating, maintaining, and supporting highly productive
IT workgroups and on supporting the workgroups in the business with
appropriate collaboration and other tools.
My final piece of advice is to document every process so it can
be duplicated wherever that task needs to be accomplished. An
organisation with 10 regional helpdesks worldwide, for instance,
should have a single helpdesk procedure that is repeated in each
helpdesk, not 10 different ones.
As technology becomes more central to business success, CIOs and
IT directors need to transform their IT organisations from order
takers to value creators. To accomplish this, they should focus on
developing IT operations that create, measure, and communicate
business value.
Rakesh Kumar is vice-president of Meta
Group
Industry debate
Jean-Louis Previdi, research
director at Meta Group, surprised many when he used last month’s
conference run by the analyst group to say that IT directors should
stop focusing on aligning IT with the business. Here, Rakesh Kumar,
vice-president of Meta Group, expands on the theme and, on page 16,
industry commentator and interim IT director Colin Beveridge
responds.