The business-quake has been, so where is IT today?

Traditional IT centric businesses are not coping nor are business. There needs to be a better way for IT. Business needs to become more agile and change is inevitable. Changes in technology, competition, governance and customer demands all need to work. This change will not stop or slow down and IT needs to lubricate the wheels of business. IT needs to provide the competitive advantage and meet the ever increasing demands on its level of service.

So much is riding on IT today that they need to shift from those bits, bytes and boxes to the provision of a Service Centric Business Model. This is a mind shift that IT and the business need to take, moving from the fragmented approach of the past to a more integrated and service drive model.

In this way IT will be better able to articulate their services and understand what it takes to deliver those services. So how does IT do this? Where do they start? They start with accepting that there has been a seismic change in business and how IT supports the business. Until IT and the business have come to this realisation they are stuck in the past and potentially have become victims of the quake. But if both IT and business have come to this realisation there is a change.

IT needs to accept their role in business is that of the steward and not the Lord of the Manor. This is a big step and crucial to the process and mind shift. Business has to take back its role and become the Lord of the Manor and provide the direction and demand. This can only happen with good communications and Governance. Because unless the business includes IT at the board table how they are going to know which way the ship is going and anticipate the challenges ahead.

Once the players have taken back their roles and the business has provided a map for the journey they can begin. IT needs to bring value and alignment to the business. This is done by defining the services needed by business to maximise its ability to respond to the market. Business is not longer interested in the bits, bytes and boxes. They are only interested in what they need to do to get the job done. IT needs to define their wears in those terms and forget about the bits and boxes when doing their work.

The demarcation is business need to work IT needs to provide those services and then maintain them to the agreed levels. IT has to provide value and their need to be a return to the business in a cost effective and efficient manner. The other role for IT is to identify all the business processes and define the best cost effective solutions to deliver those services. IT’s mantra should be to “Continually Improve Services”. Give the competitive advantage, utilise the latest technology but only if it is cost effective and efficient and provide value and a return to the business, either in productivity, money or both.

My Journey to the land of ITIL

Today I had an interview to see if I met the criteria to attend an ITIL Masters Course. Good news I past but I am not sure that they knew I was carrying out my own interview, good news they too past.

In many ways doing this course and obtaining the certification is more I believe a validation of how I have always thought. Back in July 2005 I wrote a blog called "The Keys to your Mansion" it was about how decisions of technology needed to be taken further up the tree. That the value to business had to be taken into consideration and that IT should be considered a service to business. In many ways this is the culmination of my experiences and now putting it together with both my business and technical experiences I believe will help me in my journey.

Since then I have gained a far greater appreciation of where those decision should be taken. That IT is not its own entity but an intragal part of Business. It can no longer be seen in isolation but as a necessity of business. Business needs to own its busines and IT is its business. It provids the connectivitiy to the digital age we live in, but it can't drive business. Like all buisness it has to be part of that value chain in the delivery of services. It is in aligning the business strategy and values to IT that will bring around more prosperity. ITIL I believe is just one of those tools we can use.

Over the next few blogs I am going to write about my journey in obtaining and hopfully applying the knowledge I gain from this course. I hope any reader will start to see the development of my understanding from the knowledged I gain. Hopfully my future blogs will become a better articulation of that knowledge and application into an organisation. ITIL and its application is a process of continual improvement. These blogs should represent that continual improvement in my knowledge and understanding.

The course I am doing is with the Conan Group in Western Australia. From what I have experienced to date this company has a passion about ITIL I believe is infectious. I am looking forward to being infected with more of that same passion. The important part is you not only have to walk the talk, but you need a swagger. I believe I have found that in this company and I look forward to my journey.