* Questioning where the value of IT is in organizations
In late June, Network World held its IT Roadmap seminar in Chicago. At this seminar, there were tracks that covered a wide range of IT topics and Jim moderated two of these tracks. While moderating, Jim had the opportunity to get informal feedback from hundreds of end users about a number of IT topics that relate to the value and the challenges of the WAN. We will use this newsletter to discuss one of those topics – the perceived business value of IT. In the next newsletter, we’ll discuss application delivery.
The perceived business value of IT in general and of the WAN in particular has alternated from really high to really low over most of the last decade. In the late 1990s, IT organizations were highly valued by the company’s senior managers who looked to the IT organization to resolve any potential Y2K problems. However, shortly after the turn of the century it became clear that it didn’t matter whether or not a company invested in resolving Y2K problems as few companies around the globe reported any serious Y2K-related issues. As a result, senior managers began to wonder about the value of IT.
Shortly after the Y2K era ended, we entered the dot-com era. During this era, senior managers at many companies believed that IT would allow them to fundamentally transform their business and fend off competition. As a result, IT organizations were held in high regard and their budgets were increased. However, the dot-com era led to the dot-bomb era. During this era, companies began to look at IT as nothing more than a utility and the vast majority of companies cut back their IT spending.
Today there is virtually no discussion in the trade press about the perceived business value of IT. In order to determine how IT is currently being perceived, Jim asked the seminar attendees if in general their company’s business and functional managers ‘get the business value of IT.’ We were happily surprised when the vast majority of attendees indicated that they did.
But this raises the question of what types of issues IT organizations are addressing that are causing them to be perceived as providing business value? Are these issues WAN related? We are looking for your input on this question. We have created a survey that identifies a number of potential issues and asks you to rate their importance. We would appreciate it if you could fill out this survey and we’ll share the results in future newsletters.
* Editor’s Note: Network World’s IT Roadmap is coming to Dallas on Sept. 13, and to the Bay Area on Nov. 30. The conference is free to qualified attendees. Go here for more details and to register.
