IT Management Practice

We continuously read and hear about how frustrated CEO, FD’s and business management in general, are with the performance of their IT departments. In our engagements we come across companies who require their IT departments to cut their budgets, to justify the value of their investment in IT, improve the quality of service delivery and on top of that assist with the business strategy execution. Sometimes all at the same time! There is a disconnect between business management and IT management, which after years of effort is no closer to being resolved.

This has been further highlighted with the adoption of the King 3 good governance framework in April of 2010 and the incorporation of Information Technology into the framework. It is now imperative that IT change their mindset and behavior and become more business-like in the way IT is managed. The responsibility for ensuring that value is derived from IT spend, that IT risk is controlled and that IT is aligned with the business strategy, now rests with the Company’s board. The board expectation of IT includes the measurement of IT value, the demonstration of IT alignment, quality of service, the management of risk and the communication of this in a way that make sense to the board. The company’s board now needs to be assured that they have a sufficient level of control over IT.

CXO-Advisor’s IT practice services are designed to support CIO’s, directors of boards, and business executives to ensure that their investment in technology delivers on the mandate required of IT, in a manner that is sustainable and manageable.
All sizes of business will benefit from CXO’s services approach to “Managing IT like a business” .
 
We work with both your IT and executive management teams to transform your IT department, its management, structures and investments into a business service unit that meets and anticipates the expectations of your business. 
 
Our solution for your organization may vary from a project based intervention, to a service where we take an executive management role as a part of your management team, on a long-term contracted basis. In all cases we engage against clear, manageable, and measurable deliverables, supported by our tried and tested methodology and experienced consultants.
 
Click here(WHERE) to understand why IT management needs to cross the management divide
 
Crossing the Management Divide – IT Management Journey

To understand why It management practice needs to change one needs to look at how IT management has evolved of the past 15 – 20 years. The follow table out lines this evolution:

IT 15-20 Years Ago
Today
Consequence
IT had limited touch points in the business. Much of the business was not IT dependant.
IT touches literally every aspect of the business. Business is now dependant on IT to work smoothly and be successfull.
Great focus on qualityby utilising process & recognized best practice to bring more certainty.
Any quality issues are magnified by line management as they threaten their ability to deliver.
The IT spend was a small part of the overall company Budget

IT spend is now a significant part of the overall costs of the business.

IT costs have caught the attention of accountants and business unit managers and have become a logical place to look for savings and efficiencies.
IT Technical Skills were more general in nature.
IT Technical skills are more specialized (Siloed), with more complexity. These Silos need to be integrated and cohesive enviroment hence to need to well defined processes as we saw in manufacturing industries.
IT departments have grown in size because of the need for more specialists (at high costs) who have to be kept current through training or they lose their certification by the vendor. (Alternatively the positions have been outsourced.) This has also increased the need for IT processes such as ITIL, to stitch the silos together into a cohesive operation.
IT Management Roles were limited in number and tended to have a high technical focus.
IT Management roles have expanded significantly, and have a high focus on traditional business skills, finance, business process, people management, communication, governace and the like..
The majority of IT managers have come through the technical ranks in to management roles without the management training necessary to fill the role of the modern IT executive.
In addition CEO and Business managers still see IT management as a technical role and this perpetuates the problem.
Further more there are limited training courses that are suitable for the modern IT executive. While there is a plethora of of technical training there is a dirth of specialised IT management training. Finally there are a limited number of qualified IT managers and those are expensive. Thus a vast majority of companies-big and small - cannot afford the management skills. necessary to manage one of a companies biggest asset.
Business managers did not have to understand IT, as IT did not really impact on them.
Every business manager is impact by its company’s ability to manage its technology investment. Business management now know what they want from IT but not how to deliver IT. They therefore put additional pressure on IT to be agile and responsive without really understanding the implications of their demands.
There is a fracture-line between business managers and their expectations, and IT’s ability to deliver on them. To overcome this the modern IT manager needs to be able to communicate , educate and to manage their clients expectations. They need high inter-personal, influencing and negotiation skills. They need to come from a position of business understanding rather than technical competence.
Executive management saw technology as the sole domain of the IT “Guru” and to a great extend did not get involved or need to get involved.
The modern business executive now not only has to become involved but has to take ultimate responsibility for the company’s IT assets from  a financial investment point of view and also recognizing that many of the business’ intangible assets are tied up within IT.
Corporate Governance has now recognized this and has incorporated IT into the latest King 3good governance guidelines in Chapter 5.
This means that IT management needs not only communicate with the general business but to the board.

It also means that the board need to be assured of IT’s value, proper operation, risk management and sustainabilit.

It is these changes in IT management requirements  which have driven much of our thinking and development of our IT management framework- the 3 Role Model, and the way in which we package and deliver our services.

Many IT service departments are now lagging behind from a management point of view as a result of outdated behaviors. This needs to be addressed if Executives want to improve the performance of IT, and to assure themselves of both the operational sustainability and of the value that IT provides to their business..