INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 2.0: IT’S EVOLUTION
Information is now the de facto currency of the global economy. It drives business and enables organizations to analyze and project customer needs, make better management decisions, measure business performance, improve operations, drive business transactions, and more.
At the same time, technology now serves as the foundation for ensuring that information is accessible to the business anytime and anywhere. In many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), IT infrastructures are growing more complex, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed. Data centres consist of a wide range of operating systems, hardware, and software all working together for one purpose: to get the right information to the right people at the right time.
The ongoing alignment of IT with business, signals a new vision of IT as a true business enabler and differentiator. The evolution of IT—or IT 2.0—has drastically impacted the structure of many organizations. In the IT 2.0 world, the structure and composition of IT will evolve as the line between technology and business blurs.
This transition to a business-focused environment will require companies to adapt and keep pace by maintaining a blend of business and technical experience.
Meeting business needs has always been the goal of technology. In the past, however, this was often done primarily through inward-focused back-end processes. Today, it requires IT to extend its reach to externally focused front-end processes as well so that customers, systems, processes, and information can come together to benefit from an increasingly digital economy.
IT personnel, in turn, are being required to expand their skill sets to take business-facing roles. While technology specialists will continue to provide value, personnel who have a blend of both business and IT knowledge, will become a fundamental factor in ensuring the success of an organization.
Business-Savvy It
Over the last three decades, IT has changed business. Over the next few years, business will change IT. As IT aligns with business, SMBs will need to employ individuals who not only have a technology background but who also understand the business sector. These professionals will be instrumental in ensuring that IT can—and does—consistently contribute to the bottom line.
Perhaps one of the most significant contributions of the business-focused IT professional will be gaining executive sponsorship for IT projects and budgets for IT investments. Executive support facilitates the cross-functional alignment necessary for any successful engagement. For example, an executive directive to protect the company’s brand and reputation and thwart fraud by ensuring that all applications and information are secured, enables the collaboration and support for a security initiative that might otherwise be difficult to achieve.
The business-focused IT professional can also overcome another common challenge: funding. An individual who can articulate his or her organization’s needs in business terms, making clear how various IT investments will help meet important business objectives, is much more likely to receive budget approval than the professional who simply makes his or her case based on IT needs.
Leadership Is Key
Needless to say, it takes time, effort, and diligence to improve the relationship between IT and other business units. It starts with an IT manager who is able to lead the change from an “us” versus “them” mentality and build trust with business unit leaders. In fact, one of the most important jobs of today’s IT manager is to help business units understand what IT does for them and can do for them to make them more efficient, cost-effective, and productive.
To that end, business-focused IT teams will replace more technical performance metrics with language that describes the business results that are being achieved. Business-focused IT professionals will learn to collaborate with others and manage projects, from coordinating projects to supporting risk assessment and budgeting for those projects.
Of course, developing such expertise in-house may not be feasible for all organizations. Those companies may choose to use outside vendors to gain needed skills.
Whether opting for third-party services or developing business-focused IT expertise in-house, the IT 2.0 organization will be driven by a commitment to using the most appropriate technology to meet critical business objectives. In this new environment, business skills will complement technology expertise to create an organization whose resources and projects are aligned with company goals and strategies.
The result will be a more efficient, agile, and profitable business that has the expertise, practices, and tools to thrive in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
Michael Murphy is the vice president and general manager of Symantec (Canada) Corp.
