Burke claims that many IT departments don't do the basics right and don't provide an adequate level of service to the rest of the company. This has an impact on the way they are perceived, reducing their credibility to the point that they lose their place on the panel or board where the strategic decisions are made. "You have to get the basics right to begin with to establish a certain level of credibility in terms of providing services and projects on time and to budget. When you have that credibility then you can start to enter into strategic dialogue."
Another trend, the commoditising of software and the rise of utility computing means that strategic planning could be seen as less necessary than ever. Ditching a new software implementation that isn't delivering no longer necessarily means rip and replace but simply terminating a contract with a service provider. But this flexibility comes at a price. Signing up to an ASP might make rolling out a CRM system easier but how easy is it to backtrack on the agreement?
Being reactive and pragmatic can seem impressive in the short term but just because an option exists doesn't make it compulsory. As implanting new IT systems becomes ever easier, the ability for companies to experiment becomes more tempting: fine, as long as you have money to burn. Mistakes are still mistakes; all the move to virtualised computing has done is to make its simpler to implement the wrong systems.
Burke believes what IT managers should be doing is taking a more considered and strategic view of what a particular IT system will do for the company; factors such as return on investment and total cost of ownership have to be considered but also fundamental issues such as the company culture and the core strengths of the organisation.
"What we recommend is having a structured decision making process that allows you to select the greatest value opportunities - that essentially is what all strategy is about," he says. Taking time to consider all the ramifications of an action may slow down the decision making process but it will save time, money and pain in the long term.
Talkback
This is a great piece, and we could not agree more fully. We build software for data protection teams within IT to ensure quality of service delivery and to lower their cost of serivce. Net net? We drive alignment between the goals of the business and their objectives as a group. With over 140 customers, we have seen the gamut of IT and business alignment. There is a huge gulf between companies that are proactive, strategic planners who manage IT like a business, and those that are reactive, focused soley on uptime and fighting fires. And guess which IT departments are most at risk of turning their jobs over to outsourced providers?