IT needs to stand up to business

Delores Maxwell

Maxwell, who has worked in the US, Ghana and across a number of African countries at the likes of Vodafone and EcoBank, says that IT service delivery challenges are the same no matter where you operate from. Speaking to local IT Service Managers she stressed that IT needs to change its approach to business before it will be taken seriously.

"A major challenge facing IT is that there is simply no alignment between the technology and business strategies within organisations," states Maxwell. "Business still very much views the IT department as a child who has to ask for permission to function - this is one of the greatest flaws as in order to be able to deliver on its mandate IT needs to be seen as an equal to business."

Maxwell warned that this aspect then has a direct impact on management buy-in into IT projects and requirements. This then translates into a dearth in skills and resources in the IT department as business simply doesn't understand why these are needed.

"We are our own worst enemies. When we want something we ask the business for more storage - as opposed to justifying it in business terms. Its no wonder our budgets are the first to get slashed. What this highlights however is that there is a very real need for companies to look at the inclusion of 'service representatives' who can communicate to both sides, effectively translating the IT departments needs into business speak," she says.

The need to continually innovate

An area where Maxwell says IT can provide real value to the business is through the ITSM (IT Service Management) systems, but again in her experience, because IT is still not speaking to business in their own language and from the same sounding board this is failing because business doesn't understand the value, and IT is unable to articulate it.

Change management is another area where IT service delivery fails to deliver. While IT may understand that in order to remain ahead of the game we need to continually innovate, business could be resistant to this change as it doesn't understand the necessity to introduce "necessary" changes. She adds that if the dead doesn't adapt to changes, the rest of the body simply won't follow.

"IT today faces a real challenge. We went from being the belle of the ball to just another cost centre almost overnight. But that doesn't mean we must be content to be saddled with this, we need to once again prove our worth to business, speak up and highlight what we are able to add. There are tools out there like Remedy from BMC and available through Quintica that can do all of this for you - its your job to take this data, package it and translate it into business speak for the enterprise," she says.

"As IT we need to change the conversation, we need to know where we can take the business and we need to be able to have the confidence to take them there based on our current successes. We are never going to be able to rise to our full potential as an industry if we continue to be the child in a parent child relationship," ends Maxwell.