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Applying IT to IT

A great one page opinion by Marc Andreessen. I’ve had similar sentiments since 1996 and I still believe in it when the questions is the value of IT to non-IT organizations. May not be popular though, especially since supporting automation in IT department usually results in stepping-on-toes

Phil Windley: “ I think its fascinating that IT professionals are the most vociferous in stating why automation can’t possibly be applied to what they do. One reason is the same reason the longshoremen struck the West Coast ports: they’re afraid they’ll lose their jobs. What a waste.”

Excerpts

• The solution is going to be found in automation and utility computing to make IT as easy to use and run--and as hands-off--as the phone system.
• Frankly, it will be as tough as it was to get the financial department or sales to embrace ERP (enterprise resource planning) or SFA (sales-force automation).
• IT must start taking steps forward, if it wants to be an enabler of growth, rather than a hindrance to it, once business starts to boom again.
• The benefits of embracing this fundamental shift in how IT delivers its services will be astounding. Business units' requests for a new service or change to a service will be turned around in a day rather than a week or a month.

Making IT valuable when core business is not IT

This is fodder for a much longer article, but I believe IT departments must focus on:

• Value Addition, Not Provision. You provide e-mail services? That doesn't add value. People can probably get better services from Yahoo.
• Agile Business Processes. IT should be able to advise and champion to stakeholders the value of using well-researched best practices.
• Consistently Applying and Improving Process Automation. It is a terrible waste to have people doing the same thing again and again. Automate it, let computers do the repetitive job.
• Rapid Problem Fixing. Well, if you’ve an IT department, may be that is the least employees would expect. Employees might not expect prompt service from Yahoo to resolve their e-mail difficulties, but they do expect internal IT folks to help them. Promptly and efficiently.
• Rapid Solution Delivery. Employees will always have little requests for custom software, reports etc. People expect internal IT department to help turn their dreams into scalable philosophies applicable organization-wide and then deliver practical, cost effective, usable and reusable, integratable solutions. I’m not saying that people expect internal IT department to code/wire it all themselves. Get it done by themselves, or by outsourcing.
• Handholding. Technology is now part of daily life. Just like how an effective HR department provides a good working environment, IT needs to make employees believe that they can lean on someone who cares for them. 90% of this is about not talking propellerhead language, but listening to people and educating them on how computers and systems can actually make their life better. Treat every non-IT person like s/he is your grandfather/grandmother.

Related: What makes IT drain money?