Is the IT Department Dead?

alphadogg writes "The IT department is dead, and it is a shift to utility computing that will kill this corporate career path. So predicts Nicholas Carr in his new book launched Monday, "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google." Carr is best known for a provocative Harvard Business Review article entitled "Does IT Matter?" Published in 2003, the article asserted that IT investments didn't provide companies with strategic advantages because when one company adopted a new technology, its competitors did the same."

Comments

Is the IS Department Dead?

[RealErmine]

Could be. Nobody's moved down there for weeks and the stink is awful.

Re:Is the IS Department Dead?

[BunnyClaws]

The smell doesn't mean they are dead. That is a normal smell for I.T. folks. Especially the guys supporting the servers.

Re:Is the IS Department Dead?

[Dan East]

Nobody's moved down there for weeks

Peeking in on them from time to time simply won't work - long-term monitoring is usually required, as their movement can be so subtle. Stop-motion cameras work well for this. One of the best techniques is to detect their movement indirectly, by periodically checking the amount of junk food packaging in their trash cans throughout a workday.

Dan East

lack of disadvantage is advantage

[The_Wilschon]

IT investments didn't provide companies with strategic advantages because when one company adopted a new technology, its competitors did the same. So it seems that failing to invest in IT will provide companies with a strategic disadvantage...

Pasteurization is dead.

[Peter Trepan]

Now that all dairies use it, pasteurization doesn't give any dairy an advantage over any other. Clearly, pasteurization is dead.

I know my users are all so skilled....

[jjm496]

"Business units and even individual employees will be able to control the processing of information directly, without the need for legions of technical people." Sure, Users are really likely to be picking up those skills themselves real soon. It will happen the same day they all remember ctrl-c is copy, and ctrl-v is paste. I won't hang up my pocket protector anytime soon.

Re:Depends on the Market

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course PCI specs could change or your company/the industry decides to move away from PCI. Then the problem is right back.

Regardless, this guy is only partially correct.

Correct: Computing data is similar to electric power generation in that it will be increasingly centralized.

Incorrect: The jobs are just gonna disappear.

In his example, he forgot that there's not just one guy running the power plant up the street. He also forgot the need for power strips, backup generators, batteries for portable goods, stores to sell the batteries, power strips, etc, and of course, your friendly neighborhood electrician.

In other words, yes, there's a shitload of centralization, but it still takes a lot of jobs to get electricity into the consumer's hands. Computing will be no different.

Re:Depends on the Market

[Z00L00K]

But that doesn't mean that it actually benefits your business to outsource.

The problem with outsourcing things like the IT department is that as long as it's part of the business the IT people is "always" there - and they can do some other minor jobs too if they have time. And usually problems are fixed relatively fast. (but not always documented)

In an outsourced environment the user has to log a case and then wait for the outsourced IT department to pick it up. This IT department is probably reduced in personnel compared to the business IT department which means that there will always be a queue. And when the outsourced IT department guy finally shows up he can take a look and say - OH! - That's not an IT department problem - that's a XXX problem and we don't do these... Usually the outsourced IT departments are drained of competence too so you will get the guy with maybe some obscure MS certification but no experience in the business to try to solve your problem.

And it doesn't matter what your agreements with the outsourcing company says - the competence goes down and the overhead of the operation goes up when you outsource.

As a result - don't try to measure your IT department by the means of productivity on their part. If you see them sitting down relaxing - relax - there are no problems. If you can't find them - start to worry. If they are running like hell - it's panic time. See the IT department as the fire department for computer management - they may show up from time to time to do some proactive work. Proactive work usually doesn't look like much - but it may actually make a difference when something happens because at that time they probably know every corner of the building better than most people.

IT Dept == Guardian Angels. IT Vendor == Fire Dept

[remitaylor]

See the IT department as the fire department for computer management

While you _did_ mention proactive work, I don't think you give it enough credit.

Proactive IT work is the difference between having guardian angels watching over your company ... and a million bunny rabbits running out of a blazing, burning building.

In my experience, companies that use IT 'vendors,' the out-sourced IT departments, are the ones that have to call 'IT' when something's on fire. Companies with IT departments ... though the company doesn't often realize it ... have guardian angels watching over them, keeping the fires from happening (often).

IT Departments are likely to make everyone pissed because your email will be down for a few *_MINUTES_* (!ZOMG!! not My EMAIL!~!%!) ... (to free up space on the server before the email goes down)

IT Vendors are likely to "save the day" after everyone's email has been down for a day and a half ("Thank you, fireman!") ... (because the server ran out of space and everyone's email went down)