The View from Here: The Economist Intelligence Unit, Cisco Get it Right
August 20, 2008
Earlier this month, the Economist Intelligence Unit released an extensive survey on IT transformation that it did on behalf of Cisco. Here is the .pdf of the report and the press release issued by EIU.
The results clearly indicate that the business units and IT are creating (or want to create) a closer relationship. The whole report is worth reading. Here are the top line results from the executive summary:
- IT wants change.
- IT wants part of that change to be better communications with business units.
- The current IT operation model needs to change.
- ”Front line” workers need timely information about corporate and division objectives.
- Companies that have changed are benefiting.
The bottom line is something that we have been saying right along: In today’s highly competitive and technology-driven business landscape, communication is a necessary element to success. Indeed, when everything else is stripped away, the “change” called for by respondents can be interpreted essentially as a call for improved communications.
Consider this is a characteristic finding, taken from the executive summary:
As part of this transformation, IT organisations are focusing on their relationships with their non-IT business units. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that improving IT’s responsiveness to new business requirements was their company’s top IT objective for 2008, more than any other response. In the UK and India, this was especially the case.
Though the relationship between business units and IT is cozying up a bit slower in the U.S., there is little doubt that it is a long-term trend that will assert itself more strongly here. The point is that the changes in technology makes it ever more dangerous to have IT and more financially-oriented segments of the company on different pages. There must be a unified and integrated strategic and tactical plan that is well known by everyone. The companies that recognize this will thrive; those that don’t will struggle.
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