How to create a business enabling IT organization – Part 2 – People

A new year! And perhaps time for a new operating model for your IT organization?

Continuing my previous post, how do you create an IT organization that focuses on the business and enabling the business to do more, faster, and more efficient? As I mentioned in the previous post, there is no one way to do this, however there are best practices and guidelines to achieve these.

Best practice number 1, treat your people well and invest in them. They will return the favor.

IT is one of the corporate functions that go through cycles of outsourcing and insourcing in large organizations, and there is nothing wrong with either, if the IT organization delivers what the business needs, and enables future business. This starts with the people in the IT organization. People are the key to solving almost issues, even in today’s automated world. You do need the right people in the right positions to be able deliver a business enabling IT organization, but just having the right people in the positions is not enough, you must treat them right and invest in them. If you do not, or you outsource to an organization that does not, your business will inevitably suffer. The second part of people is to map out what you can and should do with your IT organization, and what you should ask for help with from external parties. Perhaps a bit self-serving since I am a consultant helping organizations transform their IT organizations, but this is critical for the next steps. A simple task like upgrading critical systems, perhaps you can staff to do that in house, or pay your outsourcing partner to staff to that level, but should you? Analyze the staff strengths and weaknesses, run the numbers, and figure out what your IT organization should be doing, if it is not aligned with core IT service offerings, it is likely going to be better to outsource it a trusted partner.

Best practice number 2 is a simple concept, and is a large part of the promise of IT; Automation. Automation is the panacea of most, if not all, IT issues, ultimately reducing costs. By automating more and more of the IT environment, the people in the IT organization are freed up to focus on the business and the business needs, and that is the goal, be more attentive to the business. Automation savings and the more efficient use of people also helps with and enables the third best practice, Innovation.

Innovation is the what the business needs, and what the business also truly appreciates. Innovation enables the business, now and in the future. Innovation is what turns IT into the business ally, when IT shows value for the business, and is not just another corporate function that the business must contend with, or more commonly known as the necessary evil. The cost savings from automation efforts could be used to fund the innovation, but innovate is paramount for the business enabling IT organization.

So, invest in your people, automate, and turn automation savings into innovations. Sounds simple, right? Well, if you are not already doing this, it is time change the culture of the IT organization, and change how the business interacts with the IT organization. Note of caution on this, a culture change is among the hardest transformations any organization can undergo. But if the current culture does not support investing in people, focusing on automation, and is not promoting innovation, it is critical to change the culture.

To reach the new operating model of the IT organization, changing the culture is imperative. The future needs to be mapped out. Mapping out the future of the organization should be done without looking at what is currently being done, because the current state is the reason you want to change. Easier said than done to let go of the past and current, however, if you focus on the future, and do not try to make the future fit what you currently have in place, rather let the target future state determine what you will keep and the prioritization of change, you have a higher probability of success.

The path to the future state is in most cases not easy, but if focus is evolution, not revolution, showing quick wins, and turning savings into innovation, the rest of the organization will see that you are changing, transforming, into a new business enabling IT organization.

With the quick wins, integrating with business is easier, and it is also easier to start sharing some of the costs for new innovations with the business, as the business sees how you can be a partner, enabling them to increase revenue and profits.

To summarize, invest in your people, automate, automate, automate, and create a culture of innovation!

Remember IT’s culture doesn’t have to match the overall company culture! And in most cases, it probably should not match!

Disclaimer – this post is unaffiliated with my employer.