No modern business can function at its best if it does
not understand, adopt and grasp IT to its bosom, and there are very
few business processes that can be invented or executed efficiently
without the exploitation of IT. That means IT must be represented
in the boardroom.
The problem is that far too many IT departments are led by IT
directors or managers who are primarily technology-focused when
they need to be business-focused technologists. These technicians
are holding back the businesses in which they work to the detriment
of the business, their colleagues and themselves.
Any business that cannot get itself into a position where a
technologist is on the board at the same level as the sales,
finance and operations executives is disadvantaged.
Regrettably there seem to be far too few technologists with the
business and entrepreneurial skills needed to justify such
parity.
Visit every department
The advice often given to IT directors by management experts is
also misleading. The experts who talk of communication problems,
suitable language and a strategic role are all missing the
point.
The role of IT is to make the business work better, faster, more
cheaply and more reliably. If it doesn't achieve these objectives,
it is worthless.
The best advice for IT directors should be along the lines of,
"Visit every department, understand what they do and why. Ask
yourself how, with your superior appreciation of technology, you
could help them to improve their business performance. Discuss this
with the department heads or directors, and then get on and do
it."
Anything less will disadvantage the business. The head of IT,
whether manager or director, has one primary role - to help the
business make more profit.
Generating business
The technical challenges of keeping things running, disaster
recovery and so on, are just that: technical challenges that must
be overcome.
However, meeting such challenges successfully does not generate
the business that makes profit and pays people's salaries, and that
has to be the focus of the top management tier in any business.
IT is not simply a "functional department". Data processing was
a functional department, but most of us have moved a long way on
from those days.
IT is now part of the key infrastructure of any substantial
business, and it merits the same importance as finance and human
resources, for example. It needs board-level representation if a
business is to deliver its best performance.
But sadly, unlike senior finance and HR professionals, too few
IT professionals seem able to make the grade on the business
stage.
Ultimately, any business management team that cannot grasp and
exploit IT to the limit is failing the business, its customers, its
employees and its shareholders.
Steve Burrows is IT director at commercial laundry and
hygiene specialist Vanilla Group
Have your say
Do you agree with Steve Burrows' view about the role of IT
within the business? If you have an opinion about this or any
article in Computer Weekly, e-mail
computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk
Vote for your IT greats
Who have been the most influential people in IT in the past 40
years? The greatest organisations? The best hardware and software
technologies? As part of Computer Weekly’s 40th anniversary
celebrations, we are asking our readers who and what has really
made a difference?
Vote now at:
www.computerweekly.com/ITgreats