Where do IT decisions now belong?
We are
now into our second decade of the 21st century. This is the decade of
social media, a BYOD in every pocket, of robust applications (very
mature open source and proprietary solutions), of HTML5, IPv6 and the
Internet of Everything. This is the decade when IT is in the plumbing
of every organization, it’s the tick to their tock. Each organization
has a unique need and use for advanced
technologies, a requirement to power the business of their own IT DNA.
But as we look around, many organizations are still functioning as if
it’s Prince’s 1999.
Technology has not only changed in the last
13 years, it’s morphed and evolved into a new ubiquity. A good analogy
might be the utility known as electricity. At the beginning of the 20th
century, it was common for large businesses to have their own power
plants. They had large organizations dedicated to maintaining generators
and stringing lines to meet the demands of the manufacturing process.
Today such a notion would be considered silly. Electricity became
ubiquitous. There is now an outlet in the wall that you seldom give a
second thought about.
I’m proposing that we are now in a similar place with IT here in the 21st century.
An obvious example is your Marketing department. Marketing has
significantly different IT needs than even twelve months ago. Marketing
needs to manage the enterprise’s web / portable / social network
presence. This is about messaging, branding and customer contact. It’s
about positioning and market share, it’s about outreach and inbound
allegiance. It’s about communication. Both internal and external. It’s
about being agile and responsive. The fact that these requirements are
sitting upon an IT infrastructure is secondary. To use another utility
analogy, IT is the plumbing – Marketing is the elaborate fountain
display.
Or, what about Finance? Their IT needs have gotten as
sophisticated and demanding as the Marketing arm. They have very unique
requirements for government reporting, risk management, asset
management, security, Human Resource Management as well as shareholder
communications and financial management. Finance does not see the need
to underwrite its own insurance, and seldom would they ever consider
even owning a fleet of vehicles in this age. It’s the same as owning
your own printing plant to print your annual report. Might be fun, but
it does not make sense.
We could spend time in each department –
and I propose that here in the 21st century we’d discover the same in
each. Departmental demands are unique and becoming more so. Managing
them from a central authority is not only no longer required, but is
actually detrimental to being responsive in a fact (and fast) paced
market. I believe being centralized impairs the ability to succeed.
So – here’s the point of discussion: instead of a central CIO – perhaps
there should be a “Marketing Technology Subject Matter Expert”, and a
“Finance Technology Subject Matter Expert”, “Operations Technology
Subject Matter Expert” etc. who are responsible for assuring the
departmental IT demands are being met. They also maintain a viewpoint
into emerging systems that should be considered for incorporation into
the departmental tool set, and are held accountable for the coordination
of enterprise wide of technology decisions. Then there is an
“Enterprise Security Expert” who is held accountable for maintaining
security physical and virtual security – this function coordinates with
all departmental SME’s.
I believe that this group of SME’s
becomes a “virtual” CIO. The “utility” requirements are then outsourced
to the cloud, or to the local electric utility, or the water company
or….
"For first we use machines, then we wear machines, then we become machines."
Kim William Gordon
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www.bitnus.com
www.kimwilliamgordon.com
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