Radical shift in focus and perspective of IT : a conceptual analysis on how to overcome the obstacles and drive the change

Abstract

Over the last decade information technology has started to get embedded into an ever increasing range of products and services. This development expands the role of IT and changed IT's business and technical context. In consequence, most business and IT organization are facing new challenges as current practices and plans no longer meet future realities and expectations. The thesis is aimed to highlight this radical shift in focus and perspective of IT, with the goal to provide a detailed conceptual analysis on how enterprises, in particular the IT organization and their leaders can overcome the resulting obstacles and drive the change. The essence of the finding is that the perception of the IT organization has to be readjusted and the main identified obstacles in this regards are about insight, alignment, value and risk. A part of the answer to the challenge is the establishment of IT governance practices and the right kind of mature mix of structures and processes where IT leaders act as members of the business team, right down to their practice of building business plans to achieve a higher degree of business/IT alignment maturity, business understanding and insight into IT. Furthermore the intrinsic need to prove the business value delivered through IT investments can be provided through the translation of the vision, goals and frustrations of the stakeholders into specific programs, which deliver clear and obvious results back to the business, taking tangible and intangible costs and benefits into account. Special attention must also be given to the factor that meaningful business innovation and differentiation calls for some level of risk taking. This requires a setting where all levels within an enterprise are aware of how and why to respond to adverse IT events and acceptable levels of risk are understood and freely discussed. Current Frameworks, standards, best practise and even older expert literature can be of great assistance to manage this transition. However given IT's essential role in most organization today, it has become most critically important to break free from set behaviours and relationships in order to establish IT as a full business partner. Organizations that continue to organizationally and conceptually isolate IT and business will fall behind competitors that have recognised the signs and are responding accordingly.