Johannesburg, 08 Sep 2003
"Information and Internet technology has seen a blurring of lines between business and IT. The challenge for businesses has become to successfully merge both entities, as this will arguably mean a quantum lead over their competitors," says Internet service provider DataPro.
"Analysts have been talking about IT managers needing to think like business managers, and vice versa, since the early 1990s.
"But if one looks at today`s business world, we must acknowledge that we are firmly ensconced in the Information Age - meaning IT often dictates how business move forward. This does not mean that companies should simply blindly listen to their technical gurus and buy the latest and greatest IT solutions, it just means that companies, in order to transact in the digital age, need to leverage off technology that can provide them with the features that they require to do this. With the goal being more efficiency at less cost.
"One of the problems is that many CEOs and CIOs are pretty jaundiced when it comes to technology. So much money has been wasted on the wrong technology and on spending that was not actually required, that many companies see IT as a necessary evil. This mindset needs to change - and fast.
"A recent Gartner/Morgan Stanley study of 25 years of technology spending estimates that US companies lost $130 billion on unnecessary software and hardware in the past two years alone.
"During the hi-tech boom - before the dot-com bubble-burst changed the IT landscape - companies where over investing in new technology, believing that by buying the latest in technology they could muscle their way to the top through sheer technological clout. Perhaps one of the reasons why the networking and telecommunication industries are in the doldrums is because everyone bought enough hardware and software a few years ago to last them for a few years to come.
"On the other hand, there are also a lot of networks that are running out of steam as businesses under estimated the impact of the Information technology wave. In this scenario companies have decided to wise up after the IT crash and spent their time wringing the most out of their IT systems. But there is a fine line here. It is good to make sure you are leveraging all the resources of your IT infrastructure. But if the heart of your IT infrastructure is the equivalent of a 1600 cc engine and you are trying to race against cars with massive V6, V8 and turbo-charged engines, then you are going to fall behind drastically in the overall business battleground.
"It must be realised that we are in the Information Age. We are driven by digital information flow. The business minds need to know what their business blueprints are and then they need to ensure they deploy the correct technology that gives them the capacity to compete in their marketplace.
"In the halcyon 1990s it is clear that the IT tail actually wagged the business dog. Things have changed. Well, if not, they should. Now IT is the facilitator - it is the means by which companies can meet clear business goals. The emphasis here is on CLEAR business goals. Companies need to find that balance and ensure that their business heads and technical heads find common ground and become `joint talking heads`."
Share