2013/08/05
5 Aug, 2013

[Blog Post] IT Business Edge

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Often outdated processes, tools, and skills inhibit IT’s ability to be a strategic enabler and gain an IT business edge. By adopting a new, Responsive IT delivery model, teams can foster effective business collaboration, responsive iterations, streamlined processes, and no wait states; enabling business to operate at the speed of now. By changing the business-IT dynamic through an innovation focus, business stakeholders start to view IT as a strategic partner.

However, Ben Kepes outlines how organizations are often trapped within the innovation paradox and find changing the dynamic difficult:

The innovation paradox (the fact that those who need to innovate are often the very organizations whose structures make innovation difficult) comes up time and again.

Ben then talks about how many organizations dismiss IT’s ability to deliver competitive advantage. Back in 2003-2007, I consulted with many large organizations (i.e. Citigroup, Liberty Mutual, New York Life, Shell, Exxon Mobile, Siemens, Target) pitching Service Oriented Architecture as a competitive advantage, and unfortunately, few teams delivered the hyped benefits. Outside the startup culture, changing processing and outcomes is extremely difficult, and before we pitch the next Big Thing (e.g. Cloud, DevOps, APIs, BigData), we need to incorporate lessons learned into our strategy, roadmap, and execution exercises. During my consulting career, I refined my consulting toolbox, and I have incorporated many successful approaches into the methodology.

Gaining an IT Business Edge

I have posted a recent presentation and white paper describing how IT can reshape their value proposition and become a strategic enabler. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about whether the roadmap is on track, and your thoughts on how IT can effectively accelerate agility, operate at the speed of business, and provide an IT business edge.

Recommended Reading

The Path to Responsive IT white paper

Driving Enterprise Architecture Redesign presentation

New Enterprise IT Drivers blog post

Source: https://blog.cobia.net/cobiacomm/2013/08/02/it-business-edge/

 

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