An IT transformation can often feel like a huge and intimidating undertaking for IT departments to tackle. But what does it mean at its simplest? A transformation is the process of finding efficiencies, creating harmony and unlocking opportunities within an IT landscape.
Qualities all IT departments would like to adopt, no doubt. But, for some, changing the way IT is approached and executed can’t be put on the backburner any longer.
If you’re unsure whether an IT transformation is time critical for your organisation, read on to discover the tell-tale signs that it’s time to change the way you do IT – plus the IT management framework that can help guide that change: IT4IT™.
1. You’re operating (and innovating) at a slow pace
Now, I don’t necessarily mean the speed of your systems - though, of course, it is important they’re operating optimally.
What I’m referring to here is the speed at which you respond to primary business units – whether that’s in addressing issues raised or delivering on promises. As the speed at which you respond to them directly impacts the speed at which they can respond to commercial customers, a factor that is business critical.
We live in a 24/7 ‘on’ world where customers expect to be able to reset their passwords instantly or get a reply to their query within minutes or hours, not days. With these expectations as the norm, customers are willing and able to switch to your competitors, if or when their expectations aren’t met.
Similarly, customers are hungry for innovation. Software updates that make things run faster, solutions that make their lives easier and products that they never knew they needed but now can’t live without. Not innovating at the pace that customers demand also puts you at risk for them jumping ship.
Not least because your competition is doing so with ease. Start-ups - with their lack of legacy IT systems - have an agility and ability to respond to customer needs quickly. If you find yourself lagging behind, transforming the way you do IT can help you catch up.
2. You’re unable to justify costs and value
IT departments everywhere are under immense pressure to do more, faster, for less. CIOs in particular are often questioned on their budgets and the value that each IT service brings to the business.
In the complexities of a hybrid IT landscape, answering such questions is not always easy. The network of internal systems and external suppliers becomes blurred and CIOs are often unable to directly connect costs to revenue.
Taking your IT department through a transformation will enable you to increase financial transparency - so you can make your own optimisations and justify your budget to business leaders. Ultimately enabling you to prove IT’s value and contributions beyond just operations.
3. You’re not running IT as a business
30 years ago, IT was a supporting department within a business. Now, IT is the business. It no longer operates in silo, it is - or should be - the life blood of any organisation. Driving innovation, increasing market share, improving customer experience, reducing risks and taking every part of the business to the next level.
Running IT as a business, rather than a department, requires a different mindset - and an organisational shift. Organising IT like a business means moving from focusing only on tools and technique to evaluating people, process, tools, data, controls and integrations within every element of the IT landscape.
Making this mindset and organisational shift isn’t easy but by undergoing an IT transformation with a comprehensive IT management framework, it is possible.
4. You’re solving problems in isolation
Behind the scenes of most long-established organisations is a scattered, hybrid IT landscape: legacy internal IT systems combined with the cloud and external service providers. This evolved IT environment can make for chaos when it comes to solving issues.
Particularly since it’s often unclear which IT components are connected to or impact each other. Meaning one ‘solve’ can trigger an issue elsewhere, sometimes even unbeknownst to anyone - until it’s too late.
If you find yourself entangled in a complex IT landscape and are approaching problems from an isolated point of view, there is absolutely a need for you to change the way you do IT. Doing so will enable you to work in an integrated way that ensures you can put out any fires quickly and sustainably, without setting off another elsewhere.
Change the way you do IT with IT4IT
IT4IT¹ is a Reference Architecture that provides practical lines of action to make a controlled changeover to becoming a fast, agile IT organisation. Using a global standard reference architecture, IT4IT works seamlessly together with ITIL, COBIT and ISO/IEC 20000 and focuses not on processes, but rather on data and information that is needed to manage your services through their lifecycle.
In conjunction with the framework, our consultants take a hands-on approach in actioning IT4IT effectively on all levels: tailored design, implementation and on-going support. So, you can rest assured you have both the framework and the expert guidance for changing the way you do IT with impact and ease.
To dive deeper into the process of an IT transformation, and how the IT4IT model can help you execute it, download our white paper: The Digital Transformation with IT4IT
[1] IT4IT is a registered trademark of The Open Group
This blog post belongs in the series: IT transformation