Is Information Technology a support area?

Is Information Technology a support area? The traditional, "keep the lights on" world of technology just won't cut it anymore. Of course everyone expects their laptop to boot up and connect to the network. No one even thinks about it until it won't.

Our business partners expect more. They want us to be strategic. They expect us to know their goals, strategies and can capabilities. The want to know how technology can help them generate more revenue.

And so a revolution is under way. We aren't the guys who "make the trains run on time" department. Or at least, we shouldn't be.

In today’s world, the technology department cannot just be seen as a support area. It must be seen as a critical part of the business. It’s up to the CIO to drive that point home by positioning himself or herself as a strategic partner—with a distinct set of skills and tools at his or her disposal. Take the time to talk to employees that use technology regularly to really understand how they use it. Listen to business line leaders about what their people want and need to succeed—and explain how new systems can enable them to meet those goals.

via IT Implementation Depends Upon CIOs With Social Skills - The CIO Report - WSJ.

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What is business technology?

We live in a world where simply trying to align technology with business units is becoming difficult or even impossible to achieve. Savvy business staff (via the Cloud) can select, fund and enable technology without IT.

Developing effective business strategy today requires us all to blend technology strategy and business strategy in the development stage of planning, not after the fact. Technology should be fundamental to all we do as we develop business strategy.

A slow but relentless revolution in which traditional technology management, historically delivered only by an IT organization, is changing to be pervasive technology use managed increasingly outside of IT's direct control and measured by boosting business results. --Forrester Research

I think characterizing this as a "revolution" is right!!

Related articles

• CIO Alert: Questions Your CFO Should Be Asking in 2013 (spendmatters.com)


• CIOs Must Master Human Side of IT Implementation (blogs.wsj.com)


• CIO as Innovator: Enabling the Strategy-Focused IT Organization (sys-con.com)