Collaboration, analytics, metadata, information management and application management have been identified as vital components of adaptive IT organisations, the theme of this year`s METAmorphosis annual technology conference held at Caesars Gauteng.
"Achieving the adaptive organisation involves taking a long journey," Jean-Louis Previdi, Meta Group senior VP and research director told delegates at the closing session of the conference on Thursday. "It`s a process of continual improvement not achieved overnight."
At the opening of the three-day conference on Tuesday, Previdi said although many IT organisations were better organised and had better communications and project management, most had still not learnt to focus on business processes.
Returning to the topic of business processes at the close of the conference, Previdi said IT organisations had to move from basic products to business processes. "To succeed, they need to be good at business process improvement."
Previdi also emphasised the need for greater focus on the human component of business processes. "Organisations need to retain and optimise people," he said.
Picking up on a theme touched on by several speakers during the three days of the conference, Previdi said organisations had to consider outsourcing as a cost-effective alternative to buying or leasing.
"IT should be run like a factory," he said. "Demand should determine capacity, which should lead to provisioning, and planning should be done to ensure asset utilisation."
Previdi told delegates of the importance of flexibility and agility in IT organisations to respond to changing conditions. "IT organisations must learn to optimise capacity, not increase it whenever there is a new demand," he said, concluding that IT organisations of the future would be those that learnt to be adaptive to change.
Share
