I always enjoy a good discussion about IT organizational design, success, failure and "best practice". I joined a conference call the other day, and the discussion was around everyone in the company is a customer of IT. I thought to myself - really?
Looking to fail? Make sure everyone in IT tells everyone outside of IT,
“You’re my customer. My job is to exceed your expectations” (or, worse, “make
you happy”). Does that take away focus from top business capability?
Employees outside of IT are not IT’s customers. They’re IT’s colleagues, with
whom IT collaborates as equals if anything good is going to happen for the
company as a whole. This really sets the stage for establishing business capability, IT enabling capability and working together to deliver that which really matters.
Legitimizing the idea of internal customers puts IT in a subservient
position, where everyone in IT has to make their colleagues happy, whether doing
so makes sense for the business or not, let alone whether it encourages the
company’s actual customers to buy more products and services. Do you think this approach does not put IT at the table with business?
I brought this discussion up at one of the CIO round table events I attend on a regular basis. There was great discussion around both sides of this debate. Not having that customer service focus is not "ITIL", said one CIO. We are working to becoming a service based organization. I think you can have a service based approach to the business. Maintain the focus on what makes sense for the business - and on business capabilites.
One of the biggest comments I heard on the round table call was a CIO saying that it is essential for IT to be part of the business success, and to do that you need engagement, collaboration, and deliver as promised.
What do you think? I would love to hear from you.
Keep it positive!
Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net
About Me
- Scott Arnett
- Scott Arnett is an Information Technology & Security Professional Executive with over 30 years experience in IT. Scott has worked in various industries such as health care, insurance, manufacturing, broadcast, printing, and consulting and in enterprises ranging in size from $50M to $20B in revenue. Scott’s experience encompasses the following areas of specialization: Leadership, Strategy, Architecture, Business Partnership & Acumen, Process Management, Infrastructure and Security. With his broad understanding of technology and his ability to communicate successfully with both Executives and Technical Specialists, Scott has been consistently recognized as someone who not only can "Connect the Dots", but who can also create a workable solution. Scott is equally comfortable playing technical, project management/leadership and organizational leadership roles through experience gained throughout his career. Scott has previously acted in the role of CIO, CTO, and VP of IT, successfully built 9 data centers across the country, and is expert in understanding ITIL, PCI Compliance, SOX, HIPAA, FERPA, FRCP and COBIT.
I think you are confusing "customer" with "master". A customer is simply "one that purchases a commodity or service". Does IT provide a service? Is that service paid for by the revenue producing departments? Then, by definition, they are your customer.
ReplyDeleteThat is not to say that we don't collaborate or sit at the same table to jointly develop strategy. Nor is that to say that we are obligated to provide every service that they request (don't come into my Chinese restaurant and order pizza). Nor is it to say that we aren't all part of a larger family working together for a common good.
I believe in running IT like a business. Businesses have customers and they provide those customers with goods and services that they want at a price they are willing to pay.
As for the CIO who said "Not having that customer service focus is not ITIL" - he should brush up on his grammar because there are too many negatives in that statement for me to understand it.
IT is part of business, much like HR, Finance, and the like. It is ok to have a customer services approach to your internal customer, but it is equally important that IT has a role at the CEO table. I go back to say that many organizations make the mistake of having IT report up through finance. Poor organizational structure, results in poor performance.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with your reader's comment in running IT like a business is that you have every department running like a business. What is wrong with that, it becomes territorial, and I am just looking at my own P&L and I have to win, and we drop sight of the overall business itself. All these island businesses don't make the overall business efficient or profitable, but silo structure worried about their own sandbox. Tear down the silo's, and build a business together. I like what some of the corporations are doing in America around COE - centers of excellence. There is a mobile COE - where there is an IT Network person, a business person, finance person, perhaps a app development person - all on the COE team. Working together to deliver value and capability to the overall business. Running IT like a "business" is old school my friend.
IT is a service to the business, and yes it is true so isn't HR, Finance and others. The reason IT for years has been looked upon different, and for many a devil in a red suit, is not because how IT viewed itself. It was how IT behavior was perceived by other parts of the organization. The blame is on both sides, IT could have brought the communication down to the level of the business, but the business could have tried to learn and understand. I find several high level business leaders are still ignorant to technology and proud of it. So SaaS and many of these cloud pirates are taking advantage of that, and the fact the IT department internal is not respected. So therefore we are on a roller coaster ride to the bottom, making many wealthy till we come back to our senses. We need some common sense back into the boardroom, and the CIO needs to be there.
ReplyDelete