Completed Project
Organizing IT for the Future
The Enterprise IT organizational model has existed since at least the late 1960s. While the function’s range of activities has expanded greatly during this time, one could argue that the essential role and structure has not fundamentally changed. Most firms still rely on their own dedicated IT infrastructure, overseen by a central IT group. Whether this infrastructure is actually owned or managed by an outsourcing partner or the company itself can be viewed as a secondary consideration.
But after more than 40 years of stability, there are now plausible scenarios for much more radical changes. IT is permeating the business as never before at both a product and service level, requiring new levels of integration and governance. Employees are increasingly responsible for their own computing through PCs, the Internet, Software-as-a-Service and ever-more powerful consumer technologies. Aggressive global outsourcing companies are eager to replace just about every internal IT activity. And, perhaps most intriguingly, the possibilities of cloud/utility computing point toward a much more radical long term transformation. In this environment, many CIOs and business leaders are looking for guidance about the extent, nature and timing of these significant changes.
Published Research
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In Detail
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Final Report
Organizing IT for the Future
27 Jan 2009 | Position Paper
From the earliest days of commercial computing in the 1960s, there has been speculation about the best way to direct and manage Enterprise IT. The function that was once known as the Electronic Data Processing (EDP) department, and later the Management Information Systems (MIS) organization, faced challenges that even today have not been fully resolved. How much money should a given company spend on information technology? How does management know whether it is getting an acceptable return on these investments? And how does a business go about determining its internal computing priorities and decision-making processes?
In this Position Paper, we share both our research findings and our overall sense of where Enterprise IT is heading over the medium to long term, as well as the many short-term effects stemming from the current market downturn. Our goal is to work toward a shared vision of what the IT function will look like, given the position, industry and aims of an individual firm. While many uncertainties remain, we seek to help our clients articulate their overall direction and strategy in what is now a rapidly changing business and technology context. As always, we look forward to your comments and suggestions.