Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By:
Scott Schumacher
&
Miles Poole
Abstract:
The future of IT is like a fog and you can only see about five feet in front of you and
you dare not to go any further than what you can see with your flash light. This
paper is molded around three questions that we felt where the most important ones
to ask and answer. Does Information Technology on its own deliver value? Who is
Departments like a separate business? Each one of these are important questions
to have asked, since you can only predict where the future of Information
Technology may go perhaps through cloud or perhaps though another means. Only
time will tell and through this paper we will explore the questions above to really
see if maybe we can see just a little bit further ahead into the future to be better
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Problems
predicted. The main problems that this paper embraces are thus:
These issues are complex in that several answers can be given for each problem,
but it doesn’t necessarily mean that these answers will be the solution or be the
first you might think that is true, but have you considered that perhaps most
companies fail to realize the sheer importance of IT within the company? Even
though this importance is placed on IT, can you place any value to a term that is
undefined within the IT/Business relationship? The problem then occurs that you are
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that if the business doesn’t give IT a goal, some kind of project to complete, or the
ability to do these projects to bring more value to the company then there will be
little to no value.
In all reality, the main focus of IT is to support and maintain the system that
users use. This should add value to Information Technology; however, management,
and other users, may not have this perception of IT and the role it plays. This
Value is only one problem that faces information technology, the next one I’d
businesses? It’s hard to determine which it is seeing as how it could even be the
If we assume that it’s the suppliers that are driving this IT strategy then the
problem we will face is that the suppliers are trying to focus on their sales rather
than the overall goal strategy of IT. This drive is possible due to the lack of
customer service on their end. Not only could these suppliers be causing this but
the business customers within a company could not even know the purpose of IT
strategy. This could be due to the overall failure of not aligning itself with the
overall business strategy of the company. One of the biggest challenges with these
strategies is facing change, not only that, but from there a lack of funding can really
determine where the strategy is going, perhaps just maintaining what you have or
just staying afloat. From this lack of funding the strategy could fail to meet the
needs of the growing number of customer demands, which then becomes the fact
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that the IT department has failed to serve the needs of the business. From there,
Just not even having an IT strategy that aligns with the critical business areas
can cripple a company for it to succeed. Companies need to take into account
though that IT strategies are completely different than a business strategy and can
ones that, in the end, drive the IT strategy within a company. Even though trying to
pin down who is driving IT strategy is a serious problem, I think companies are also
trying to decide whether or not IT departments should be run separately from the
This problem seems rather difficult to nail down because the questions could
be answered with a simple answer of there is a lack of focus in the company, but
really that doesn’t explain everything else. A company should understand that
whatever IT does, it does affect the main company as a whole. This whole problem
departments receiving items that they don’t need due to budget concerns and or
just not listening in general. This process could even make it so that the IT
department within the company is let go and everything is out sourced. The
big waste of time, money, and man power from treating IT as a separate business.
The business needs of the IT department could not align with the company itself if it
is separated and from there, if you’re trying to maintain the status-quo, there can
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Not only could these problems occur, but an IT department trying to run itself
department won’t line up with the company it’s under. Not only that, but trying to
manage the business aspects of the IT department could get dangerous along with
there not being a way for the two to effectively run itself as its own business.
Overall having this separation within the company will cause disconnection
between the two “businesses” and from there the company may choose to not keep
the IT department around any longer. Seeing as how the services and support they
department and the main company permanently and well poof no more.
Solutions
We've identified the many issues surrounding the future of IT but haven't
addressed how to resolve them. So how do we show that IT, in fact, does deliver
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entity. As previously pointed out, the ability of IT to deliver value on its own isn't
always clear to the decision makers within a business. To rectify this, business
leaders and IT leaders need to develop a clear definition of the term value within
their business. Once the definition has been determined it should be communicated
to ensure all departments fully understand what the business as a whole deems to
business goals will further solidify the importance of the department to the overall
business model (Cameron). Once value has been defined, how do we measure it to
measured. As with any business unit, costs should be monitored and analyzed to
reduce risk and waste. Organizations must be tightly integrated amongst its
business, finance and IT departments so all executives understand how each help
overall vision and strategic plan providing the backbone to all business operations.
With this type of support, IT can begin to show that they provide the company a
competitive and generating value by saving time, effort, and money that can be
To help define IT’s place in the business model and how it provides value to
the organization, it helps to determine and understand who or what is the driving
factor behind the decisions made in IT. Far too often leadership has a knee jerk
reaction to problems and loses sight of business strategies. This causes the
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revisit the relationship between the two organizations to make sure goals are
to date and functioning as decrepit equipment can affect the bottom line as
performance and downtime. Executives may not be willing to authorize the use of
(Hebert).
reviewed frequently to ensure their relevance and if it’s determined that the current
unique barriers that inhibit the flow of communication. To help solidify the
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systems at the right time and the right cost while providing accurate cost analysis
for pending future projects. Having the IT team in house and contributing to the
overall business guarantees that goals are aligned and communication barriers that
typically exist between a company and its suppliers does not exist. Roles and
responsibilities are simple to create, modify and implement without the messiness
Conclusion
Companies that are able to remain fluid and adapt their business models will be
successful; those that remain stationary will be left behind to fail. Leadership that
can grasp and understand that IT is a means to an end in the sense that it can be
used as a tool to meet objectives within the business, are all but guaranteed
success within their industry. Aligning with the corporate goals, IT departments can
demand which will in turn attract more customers, propelling the company forward.
successful company.
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References
Cameron, Bob. "Finding IT`s Business Value." CIO Insight. Ziff Davis Enterprise, 28
Business-Value-759402/
Hebert, Tim. "Avoid denying true cost of network downtime." IndUS Business
http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?
sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A
%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=D8EEB945CF
43414C98988A67AB1636EF&AudID=EEB7C7075C2E462F969310BCC0CAA619
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