Seven Ways to Secure IT's
Future
(Source: Harvard Business Review)
Many of us involved with IT believe that success in the
new normal calls for democratising IT-enabled innovation.
But democratised innovation represents a significant shift
from how IT currently operates and there is no clear roadmap
or consensus on how to move in this direction. IT leaders
know that change is necessary, but are so busy struggling
with today's challenges that they do not have the time to
bring the future forward.
To prevent anarchy, you will need to guide this
democracy. Here are some objectives you will need to
consider:
• Uplift the IT-savviness of the corporate consumers of
technology. Everyone in the organisation needs the capability
and accountability to satisfy their day-to-day IT needs so
that scarce IT resources can focus on creating the future
versus supporting the past.
• Manage and mine the data that is literally exploding
within our companies. Data storage is growing at 80 per cent
per annum with no end in sight. We need new approaches
and techniques to exploit the value of the data that,
according to a CIO from the electronics sector, is "constantly
flowing and oozing out of the business."
• Deploy "sense and respond" and innovation toolkits
rather than applications with fixed functionality. Front line
employees need access to information about consumers and
business operations and the ability to modify processes in
real time to adjust to the challenges at hand. In addition,
they need toolkits that allow them to test new ideas, measure
the impact of these experiments, and share promising ideas
with others so that they can be extended and improved
upon.
• Architect technology platforms that reflect the target
business operating model and support integration, change and
growth. Few companies have articulated the business
capabilities necessary for the future and the implications for
underlying technology. And even fewer have figured out how to
solve the Apollo 13 type conundrum of how to bind together the
best of yesterday's technology with tomorrow's in ways that
support the target business model and accommodate change
and growth.
• Transition from governance breadlines to governance
buffet lines. Corporate consumers of technology have to wait
in line for their share of the IT pie and most get less than
what they asked for and need. Business leaders should be able
to select the technology products and services that make sense
for them and have the authority to experiment with technology
as long as they consume it in a way that is healthy for the
enterprise body as a whole.
• Lighten the burden necessary to manage the extended
IT organisational ecosystems. Managing relationships with
external providers (think cloud, SaaS, off-shoring, systems
integrators, and others) requires legions of lawyers, forests
of paperwork, and regiments of relationship managers,
technologists, and risk management professionals. We have to
get better at making these cross-organisational "partnerships"
work.
• Better manage the unanticipated consequences of
our increasingly technology-dependent and networked
world. Toyota's unintended acceleration issues and the recent
hiccups in financial markets reminded us that the systems we
create are not always under our control. We need better
techniques to predict and control these inherent risks.
IT leaders understand that business leaders will take IT
matters into their own hands if someone does not provide them
a roadmap. Translation: If you are an IT leader, business
leaders need your help.