Is it time to say goodbye to IT? That’s the argument made by Asheville, North Carolina CIO Jonathan Feldman in Information Week. He says that in the techie and non-techie world, IT departments often are the center of conflict: “like a raging infection in the corporate body, IT is continually at war.”
The problem with IT, he points out, is that the traditional model of IT takes on a superhero role. “encourages learned helplessness on the part of employees,” Feldman notes. “‘Here’s IT, to the rescue!”‘ It’s no wonder that people both resent and over-use IT.” Mike Hamilton, the director of IT at MuleSoft, agrees that too often IT can be too distant from the business. “IT should be a key ally to the business, rather than leaving an offering at the altar,” he says.
The truth, of course, is that enterprise technology is no longer the purview of IT alone, but rather something the entire business needs. Technology projects encompass not just technologists but professionals from communications, finance, data analysis and every other department. Feldman says, that technology projects of the future should include “our organization’s best technologists…great communicators, awesome project managers, fantastic marketing pros, skilled negotiators, and the cream of our data scientists.”
We often say the CIO is the Chief Integration Officer, but he or she isn’t just integrating a software stack. It’s integrating new players new modes of thinking at the digital strategy table – it’s integration as a rethink of technology not just as a function stuck in a data center but as a key business competency. The ideal integrated enterprise technology projects are collaborative in nature and agile in development. It’s through this collaboration that great innovation can happen.
Take a look at more resources on the CIO’s new role.
