754 – Nine “Truths” about IT in 2003

 

 

  1. Connectivity and access provide new organizational opportunities.  Organizations can change internally – across functional silos – or externally by forming partnerships across organizational borders.  Some organizations won’t change at all.

 

  1. Expanded and additional business models are being enabled by technology.  There are simply more businesses you can be in.

 

  1. IT used to be a support function.  It still is, but it can also be a strategic function as some businesses choose to use IT for competitive advantage.  Businesses need to identify their role for IT and to staff and lead accordingly.

 

  1. IT projects are moving from single ad hoc projects to infrastructure investments.  The former had limited scope; the latter can be leveraged to provide improvements in operations, strategic partnerships, and employee knowledge.

 

  1. It projects of any consequence create organizational change.  Successful change can be facilitated by managing the innovation process.

 

  1. Most IT systems should be bought rather than made, not just to save money, but to adhere to industry standards.  This obviously changes the role of the IT professional.

 

  1. IT has already gone through three areas of business focus.  Experience in one era may blind business leaders to the needs and opportunities of the latest era.  Don’t ask a COBOL coder to help you develop a supply chain system.

 

  1. We are now dependent upon real-time systems.  Failure is not acceptable.  Much of the current effort in IT systems is not to make them more functional, but to make them more bullet-proof.

 

  1. We assume connectivity anywhere and any time.  The business and personal impacts of this are first being felt.