The State of the IT-Business Relationship

Alastair Bathgate at WorkForceInABox wrote a compelling piece titled IT vs The Business - the Final Countdown? in which he asserts the following.

"IT functions have now implicitly turned into two types:

a) the “can’t do” department, focussing only on operations and not strategy (I mean business strategy not IT strategy) and who buy blade servers and occasionally put out a tender for some outsourced development to compete against an SI proposal.

b) the “can do” department that focuses on business strategy, acts as an interpreter between the business and the IT world, and perhaps most importantly focuses on solving business problems. Yes, of course the operations, governance, security and compliance still needs looking after - but that’s all overhead. The exciting bits are the bits that drive the business forwards and deliver value, not cost. And if you’re not at the centre of the business you are on the periphery - and that is no exciting, rewarding, or secure place to be…"

Let's be sure we're the "can do" department that focuses on business strategy. Indeed, Let's be the bilingual partner, actually participating in the definition of the business strategy, translating between business and IT perspectives, and establishing an IT strategy that supports the business. It's a challenging role, but I bet we're up to it. Ready? Set? Go!