Gartner: IT Isn't Strategic? Nonsense!
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I'm in Orlando at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, where one of the issues du jour is the recent flare-up in the debates over whether IT is strategic, and whether CIOs will still be needed. There's no question where this organization's top consultants stand: IT is strategic, and anyone who thinks otherwise is being just plain ridiculous. |
This is from a conversation I had with Mark McDonald, group vice president of Gartner Executive Programs.
McDonald:...Once an IT organization establishes a consistent track record for delivery and credibility, there's an explosion of expectations around processes, information and customers, and an expectation that IT will no longer follow a me-too strategy.So the idea that IT for competitive advantage is going away is nonsense?
McDonald:
It is nonsense. We've found that highly effective IT organizations contribute significant value to their enterprises.... We have to eliminate this notion of generic IT, of my IT being like everyone else's IT is OK.
Not blunt enough for you? Here's what I heard from Dale Kutnick, McDonald's boss and senior vice president of Gartner Executive Programs, when I asked the same question.
Kutnick: "It's only being questioned by knuckleheads. There are always naysayers who pop up and say IT isn't strategic, it's becoming less strategic, it's becoming a commodity -- the Nicholas Carr BS. And we've responded to it, we're quite vocal - we did a podcast refuting that notion. There's not a doubt in my mind that IT is more strategic than it was before, for two reasons. One, most organizations in past 10 years have doubled the amount of money they spend on IT, probably more money relative to revenues as well, though that's not going up any more. It's now getting attention at the board of directors. Which means you better not screw it up, or you'll find out how strategic it was.Moreover, there are absolutely, unequivocally companies in every industry that have used IT as a competitive differentiator. Not absolute IT, but IT as part of business process. I talked to a transportation company; they use IT to differentiate their scheduling and distribution strategies. IT is an undeniable component of all that, becoming more important all the time. In his business his motto is, before we move something, let's think through the consequence of it from an information standpoint. To me, I think IT is becoming more strategic than ever."
As for getting rid of CIOs or the IT organization, Kutnick said he thinks that idea is "dumb." Strategy aside, it's just not feasible.
Kutnick: "In the last 20 years, many people have said IT will disappear, will get embedded in the business. We go through this anarchy phase all the time -- we don't need CIOs, any moron can run that. The problem is, from a regulatory standpoint it ain't going to fly. Companies need a senior officer in charge of IT to know what's going on. More important is the amount of money spent on IT, and the fact shared services are actually growing. Take financials -- I can do my financials on my spreadsheet. So why is my financial organization getting larger? Because finance is a shared service. Most companies have a centralized or federated HR too. IT's the same; there's leverage to be gained. That's why the idea of IT being absorbed into the business is nutty. Why would business executives worry about license fees and managing servers? That's dumb."
