The technology world has undergone a number of significant changes in the last two decades. New technologies changed the foundations of traditional companies and gave birth to fresh ones. Markets and industries underwent fundamental transformations due to technological advances. Many argue that these changes are no different than other innovative ideas that transformed the world, such as railroads to aviation and the telegraph to cellular phones. From their origins as a competitive advantage, technologies quickly dissolved into invisible commodities, thus adding new recognizable value, so the argument goes.
To keep up with these changes, IT must evolve to adapt its core value proposition to the business mainstream agenda. If they do not make this change, IT professionals risk becoming a commodity, just like utilities such as electricity and phone access.
To realign the IT function with the core of the business it serves, we propose that IT executives change the view of who they are and what they do in the organization. The shift must start by changing the perception of IT as managers of tools and infrastructure (which are outsourceable and are not a core competency of most businesses) to producers of Information. Managing the corporate network is not a way to connect to the corporate mainstream focus on growth through innovation. It is merely a cost of doing business and equal to other basic requirements, such as buildings and utilities. As such, it is destined to a non core position.
Imagine information as a product and imagine IT as sellers of that product. What is the best selling piece of information? What is the shelf life of information? Would it last in a competitive environment? Would customers actually be willing to pay for it? These are some of the critical shifts that IT needs to make in their understanding of their business.
Their measurements must adapt accordingly. Instead of focusing on on-time service metrics, they must evolve to be measured on their information utilization. Did it grow or decline? Is the information exercising a 50% growth in usage? Do they have information products that should be discontinued due to lack of interest? What critical decisions in the organization took advantage of the information? What risk was reduced due to better information utilization? IT should evolve its view and way of measuring itself to reflect business impact. They should not just maintain a plumbing system and say “we deliver the infrastructure, what you do with it is your choice.”
This changes the position of IT from “the people responsible for plumbing” to “the people who ensure product usage and user satisfaction”. Technology executives must view their role through a prism, looking at their product with a new perspective: information and user acceptance. They must become a combination of product sellers (a.k.a. information), educators, coaches and mentors of the usage of their products and not just be artists who glorify their tools (servers, security, applications). As such their focus should shift from maintaining networks to ensuring utilization and satisfaction of products. They must take a complete ownership approach of their products and assure full usage and satisfaction of their users
The two key principles of this shift are the focus on product utilization and the users’ experience and satisfaction. IT must engage in understanding how users consume their products and what makes them relevant. Like true product managers, they must ensure that the product is relevant and that the users “buy it” and are satisfied with it. The challenge is even greater when most users take advantage of the available technology in its limited form, transactional flow automation, thus neglecting the decision support and innovation aspects of the information gathered by the technologies.
This represents a transformation from the popular mode of information production where users are responsible for using it, to information utilization, where IT is responsible for user utilization and is measured by its impact. This is the Information Technology operation transformed into Individual Technology which then leads to Innovation Technology.
Adapted from Lior Arussy new book Innovating IT – Transforming IT from Cost Crunchers to Growth Drivers (John Wiley & Sons, December 2004). Available exclusively at http://www.amazon.com/innovatingIT