There are times when the IT function is working — no real complaints, getting recognised for delivering some good things — and there are times when it feels like something needs to change.
This feeling can creep up on you like the proverbial boiling frog, or it can hit all at once like a disruptive and worrying cybersecurity incident.
The fact that it’s time to do something about IT is actually perfectly normal. IT, like any organism, goes through cycles of life, responding to the cycles of the business.
IT can never stay the same, it must continually become the function the business needs. And by “IT” I mean any combination of its operating model, its capabilities, the services it provides the business, its cost base, even who its closest alliances in the business are.
So it’s normal that there are times when IT needs to change from what it has been to what it needs to be.
The trick is staying ahead (but not too far ahead) of the organisation’s opinion about what IT needs to be: Foresight.
There are patterns and anti-patterns about what IT needs to become, and reading the signs and knowing what shape IT needs to be next is a skill you need. The other skill you need is the ability to nudge, budge, shift, and lead IT (from whatever vantage point you have) into that new future.
The place to look is, where are the limiting factors in your IT function? For example:
- Are you dependent on heroes to deliver and you’ve reached their ceiling of productivity or capability? Don’t replace them (unless they’re toxic), but instead build an operating model that scales their abilities.
- Are your services not meeting the demands and expectations of the business? If the business is buying their own apps and tech, this is a strong sign you need to reinvent your application and tech portfolio – or your approach to your data, app, and tech ecosystem and lifecycle management.
- Does the CFO complain that IT costs too much? This means your cost to value ratio is wrong. The value you think you need to deliver has changed: the business doesn’t value what it used to, and now you need to support different value streams better. The other thing that may be going on here is that you’re not close enough to your business. Either you’re ignoring or you’re not hearing what’s required.
This is not an exhaustive list, but illustrates that there will always come a time when IT needs to change. The trick is of course, staying ahead of the curve.
Understand what services the business needs and will need, what capabilities you need to deliver them, and the operating model that delivers the services. These are three useful lenses that can make IT win.