The days where the IT operation was a separate fiefdom with autonomy are gone. In most organisations, there are now components that are relatively closely aligned with the business and they are delivering specific business outcomes. IT operations now tend to be very workload or business unit specific in their support. The downside, however, is that different silos within the organisation have very different experiences, resulting in inconsistency.
This has led to a certain level of dissatisfaction within the business, with those who are not getting their requirements met resorting to finding their own solutions. That is really where the chief digital officer (CDO) concept started to emerge, to ensure that there is someone to coordinate all of this and improve the overall performance. Despite that, most organisations in South Africa are experiencing some flavour of that inconsistent outcome and the pressure in terms of evolving is to now really start bringing in that level of consistency. Businesses do not know what they need to focus on next, or which part of the business will be able to deliver value more quickly. They do know, however, that the support organisations need from the likes of IT needs to be repositioned so that they can deliver on-demand. They, therefore, need IT to move away from being tactical and responsive, and become more agile, with the right technology, skills, and expertise to move quickly to support the business.
Move away from typical IT behaviour
This story is from the April 2020 edition of Leadership.
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This story is from the April 2020 edition of Leadership.
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