The IT department of the future?
- Steve Thorlby-Coy
- Feb 9, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 9, 2022
[Originally posted on LinkedIn 25th February 2020]
I've had a couple of interesting discussions recently about what IT departments might look like in the future. What will change and what will be the same?
IT teams are used to the technology itself changing and evolving of course, so in many respects the ability to implement, support and maintain new technology will continue to be a requirement. Organisations will choose to do some of this in-house and bring in 3rd party expertise where they need it. This isn't new, I remember reading Lasa's Managing IT guidance (1) published over 20 years ago, and whilst it feels a bit dated, it still describes a big chunk of most IT departments' roles and responsibilities, things like setting policy and maintaining records. But I think this will change. As technology moves more towards Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Device as a Service, individual organisations may find they have less choice over the policies and configurations, but the standard offer is perfectly acceptable, in the same way as we just accept standard terms and conditions of consumer tech services.
The IT department of the future shouldn't just be fixing business problems that others identify, it should be identifying opportunities and innovating.
What also needs to change is the focus of resources. If IT isn't the core business, then IT departments need to spend less time and effort on 'keeping the lights on' and more focus on adding value to the ultimate end customer by improving processes in terms of quality and efficiency. IT teams need to spend more time understanding core business processes to select and apply appropriate technology, with the business areas leading the change rather than IT departments leading them. This 'business partnering' model isn't new either. I've been talking about this for 20 years and I'm sure people were talking about it before that.
These two things mean that IT teams need skills in business analysis, communication and collaboration, along with technical architecture - systems and, crucially, data. (Data offers a huge opportunity to add business value). The IT department of the future shouldn't just be fixing business problems that others identify, it should be identifying opportunities and innovating. The 'partner' aspect of business partnering, means a two-way conversation.
Moving towards technology 'as a service' allows the IT team to focus on being proactive rather than reactive. Less time and effort on support and maintenance and more time and effort on adding value. IT teams are offering more self-service support, which is increasingly acceptable since most of us are used to Googling or YouTubing our IT problems anyway.
IT leaders have been talking about this for a while, and my team at Yorkshire Housing are certainly heading this way, so maybe (finally!) this isn't the IT department of the future, this is the present. Isn't it?
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