Editor’s note: This is the final part of a three-part column on strategies for making
IT work in the enterprise. Part 1 focused on trends shaping IT organizations and how IT should enhance
evolving business models. Part 2 outlined an approach to IT organizational alignment.
In the third and final part of this column on IT/business alignment, we conclude our
“open letter” to your company’s business and IT community – begun in Part 2 – by detailing how services, alternative funding mechanisms and, yes, people
play a role in an effective organizational alignment.
Services
The central IT organization should organize itself to provide sets of ongoing and
special (temporary) services organized in some specific ways.
Business strategies should drive the whole process. Business strategies (which must
be clarified and validated) developed by the lines of business lead to lines of
business IT strategies which, in turn, provide input to the enterprise IT strategy
(defined as services).
These services represent the specific services that the lines of business (as clients)
would accept, reject or modify, as appropriate, and include such activities as
desk-top, laptop and PDA management, data center management, communications
management, applications management and security management.
Mechanisms
the divisions that will benefit the company, the central IT organization needs to
organize itself adaptively.
operational expenses from infrastructure investments. While traditional charge-back
mechanisms can be used to pay for day-to-day operational expenses and — via a
built-in cushion — some infrastructure reinvestment, there should also be a central
fund for major investments. This fund can be generated via a corporate tax or via new
allocations from the enterprise. Incentives should be created for the lines of
business to invest directly or indirectly in infrastructure investments and
re-investments.
importance should be centrally funded if the businesses are unlikely to fund the
activity. A prime example is business resumption planning and disaster recovery.
Other activities – like process improvement, end to end planning, and related
‘disciplines’ – often go un-funded by the businesses. If the enterprise considers
such activities to be of great importance, and the incentives to invest at the lines
of business level are inadequate, then the enterprise should (a) change the incentives
or (b) fund the activity centrally.
which support services should be provided by in-house personnel and which should be
provided by outside consultants and vendors. Economies of scale, efficiencies of
operations, expertise considerations and an overall core competency assessment should
drive decisions about what to do in-house and what to outsource.
activities that dilute their missions and are enhancing those activities that
represent the core or essence of their business. Moreover, the pace of technology
change, the obsolescence of skills, and the volatility of the industry all suggest
that alternatives that permit us to move quickly should be explored.
outsourced IT products and services. For example, in 1990 very few organizations
outsourced their help desks, while by 2000 nearly 70% of all Fortune 1000 companies
outsourced some help desk activities (with the trend expected to grow dramatically).
Industry trends are important to monitor because they reflect the maturity and
cost-effectiveness of products and services.
circumstances:
— In-source when the tasks involve requirements –> specification –> and design –
and when in-house expertise is deep and available.
— Outsource implementation via complete and “transitional” outsourcing models where
there is a high potential for “knowledge and process transfer” and where the transfer
area is a targeted core competency.
— Outsource when the target is at the back end of the life cycle, when the prospects
for knowledge transfer are low, and when the area is not – and should not become — a
core competency.
assets. Emerging trends indicate that an increasingly number of organizations are
leasing computing equipment of all kinds. Leasing versus buying options should be
analyzed thoroughly and often.
outsourcing (among other issues). Once decisions have been made, the PO should
coordinate vendor support.
pure service model, organizational decisions, and decisions about insourcing &
outsourcing, and our need for the ‘right’ talent will rise dramatically.
network-centric systems integration and then inevitably to the Internet as our
primary communications and computing platform. Skillsets will have to be enhanced in
systems integration, architecture design, and project/program management to make this
journey successful.