Merge the business of business and the business of technology

Is the position of the IT department in decline, or is IT evolving into a new, more important player in 21st century business? Sybille McCloghrie, Group Business Development Director of COSA, says IT and its leaders entered the new millennium with a new business relevancy, although not everyone has realised this.

The corporate world is filled with as much political intrigue as one finds in governments around the world, if on a smaller scale. This politicking can have the positive effect of keeping executives on their toes and preventing them from succumbing to a business-as-usual attitude, but it can also have a negative outcome as business processes are hampered due to territorial and one-upmanship games.

The IT market is no different and has seen its fair share of politics and dictators, some beneficial and some harmful to businesses. IT is also different. Recent years have seen technical management under the gun for below-par performance and a perceived inability to support business strategy: The once untouchable IT person has been brought down a notch or two.

There was a time when business had no real choice as to what IT did or didn`t do. IT allowed business to implement only those things it approved of. What the company might need to grow and improve was immaterial, as IT would only support certain processes and requirements it approved of due to the limitations of technology - and a little politics.

Then, as technology evolved and became more open and understandable to the masses, IT departments also had to change, but they were determined to hold on to their monopoly. Although flexibility was now technically possible, technology leaders were in no mood to see their power base decline. Therefore when business got excited about a new process or solution, IT would still be able to veto its implementation - with the veto most usually invoked for good reasons, but not always.

CIOs still had the ability to implement new processes to spur the business forward, or simply to ignore them. Obviously this was not an acceptable solution to business management and stakeholders, as we can see from the changes implemented since Y2K and the dot-com bust.

The economic downturn saw businesses cutting IT budgets and wresting back some of the decision-making authority from their CIOs. Far from a political manoeuvre, this was simply a result of difficult markets and increased global competition - and perhaps a little politics.

The profile of the CIO changed as a result. IT leaders used to be technologists functioning in a business environment; now an increasing number are business people (often financial directors or chartered accountants) leading IT departments. Hence the link between IT and business is getting stronger, and more CIOs are finding themselves being included on company boards where they have input into business strategy.

Some feared the CIO would become irrelevant and IT departments reduced in size and significance in this new dispensation. On the contrary, IT is more important to business than ever before, but the relationship is no longer dominated by one side. Just as technology innovation can lead to business innovation, today business innovations have a direct bearing on technical developments - the tide of innovation and radical business processes is flowing both ways and the winner is the business.

Modern IT departments and CIOs are closer to business strategy and will become ever more entwined in achieving their organisations` strategic goals in future. Of course, the process of change is painful, with some people on both sides of the divide trying to buck the trend and retain their power base.

The evolution of IT and the CIO is unstoppable, however, and we shall see companies adopting this new business/IT partnership able to weather the storms of competition and globalisation better than those in which people are still trying to protect their turf. Those still making political moves will see their efforts fail as the role of technology moves from being that of a celebrity player in the game of business to that of an integral cog in the gears of a successful business.