Why "Running IT As a Business" Is a Bad Idea

snydeq sends along a provocative piece from Infoworld, arguing that the conventional wisdom on how IT should be run is all wrong. "Bob Lewis dispels the familiar litany that 'IT should be run as a business,' instead offering insights into what he is calling a 'guerilla movement' to reject conventional 'IT wisdom' and industry punditry in favor of what experience tells you will work in real organizations. 'When IT is a business, selling to its "internal customers," its principal product is software that "meets requirements." This all but ensures a less-than-optimal solution, lack of business ownership, and poor acceptance of the results,' Lewis writes. 'The alternatives begin with a radically different model of the relationship between IT and the rest of the business — that IT must be integrated into the heart of the enterprise, and everyone in IT must collaborate as a peer with those in the business who need what they do.' To do otherwise is a sure sign of numbered days for IT, according to Lewis. After all, the standard 'run IT as a business' model had its origins in the IT outsourcing industry, 'which has a vested interest in encouraging internal IT to eliminate everything that makes it more attractive than outside service providers.'"

Comments

Re:He is correct

[yuhong]

Yea, it is likely hitting the problems of shareholder value and agency theory yet again, to the point I am seriously thinking of resubmitting my Slashdot submission on this again.

Some possible good in chargebacks

[jpmacl]

I love discussions like this - it amazes me how corporate IT can think of themselves like vendors, when they typically have minimal skills in that regard. I wrote about chargebacks a few years ago - the good and the bad ... http://bit.ly/6YeInd See also ... http://bit.ly/EwsC ... lots of different ways to think about the business / IT relationship