It is understandably galling for many IT directors that
their departments are often seen as simply providing a service and
as a cost centre rather than a profit generator.
At the City IT Forum (see page 18) there were renewed calls for
IT to have a board-level presence, rather than play poor cousin to
the finance department, and for IT to be seen as a bona fide profit
centre.
It is certainly true that advances in IT have been responsible
for the development of many new services and products - one has
only to look at the rise of business over the internet to see that.
In the area of finance, the importance of a computer/
internet-based offering is especially marked.
But for all this, it is still difficult to see IT as a clear
profit centre for most businesses in that IT usually remains the
means for delivering a service or product rather than the product
itself. For example, when one purchases travel insurance online, it
is still the policy and its promised benefits which is the product
rather than the greater ease of purchase provided by the insurance
company's website.
In internet banking, the service offered is (hopefully) secure,
convenient and speedy banking, while computers and communications
devices are the means of providing this. Well publicised stories of
customer dissatisfaction over security lapses or computer downtime
locking people out of their bank accounts clearly show that messing
around with IT is not what consumers are looking for.
The same principle applies to many improvements in business
processes. For example, an efficient electronic archive may
positively affect a company's bottom line by increasing efficiency
and cutting costs, but would you call it a profit centre?
It is all very frustrating for the IT manager who wants to be
seen as grasping the entrepreneurial banner, but perhaps the
"problem" of the relative status of IT is more a matter of
semantics than reality.
Service has become a dirty word in today's Britain. Perhaps it
is time for IT professionals to take the lead in restoring the
notion of service as an honourable and rewarding activity. That
still means understanding business needs and opportunities and
talking the same language as one's business colleagues, but it may
mean reining in the desire to be conspicuous as one of the "movers
and shakers".
A job well done, costs cut and efficiency increased will always
cut ice - not only in the boardroom but at all levels of the
organisation and beyond.