The proliferation of technological devices over the past decade has made what was once an arcane skillset – highlevel computer literacy – into a job requirement. And that has resulted in some interesting changes to the job description of today’s IT specialists. By Peter Wilson.
Through a type of electronic natural selection, the boxy desktops and blocky cell phones of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s gave way to today’s sleek smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks. It is a buyer’s market now for those looking to get a mobile device, with more computing power than last decade’s high-performance desktop. And with countless brands, models and carriers to choose from, choice has become the enemy of the CIO.
Their ubiquity has led to a flood of personal gadgets into the business world; the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement is real, as are the demands of employees who want an integration of their work and home lives on their individual iPhones and Androids. This ‘consumerisation of IT’ has resulted in a more technologically-minded population, and consequently is triggering sweeping changes to the IT landscape, including its organisational functions and employee job descriptions.
The new generation entering the workforce, regardless of their specialisation, is equipped with a working knowledge of how to operate and occasionally troubleshoot an array of devices. Accompanying this boost in IT self-sufficiency is a decline in the need for separate IT departments and managers to conduct day-to-day system maintenance and problem-solving. More niche IT positions, from your network architects to your advanced security pros, are still in high demand, but the shoes to fill are shrinking for basic supervisors.
IT departments are now at a crossroads, as they face a significant loss of control due to modern tech trends. Their best (and necessary) answer is to adapt and evolve to meet the new demands BYOD brings. Some IT professionals think that means going back to the books – building up their device and operating system-specific knowledge in order to be equipped to combat anything and everything. I would advocate that it means the IT department must evolve the way it manages its resources – that it turns to outsourcing or self-service models to handle the challenges that BYOD brings so it can focus on strategy.
The biggest obstacle that IT as an industry needs to overcome, however, is advancing its place in the basic strategic vision of the company. IT certainly can’t stay strategic while managing the daily issues involved with BYOD. From entry-level techs to upper-level execs, IT needs to discover how it becomes not just a facilitator of business dealing, but an area of the business that creates value and helps generate return on investment. Such a massive gearshift has to start at the top. It is up to CIOs to adopt a proactive stance in order to navigate their IT departments where they need to go.
At the topmost levels, CIOs should prioritise strategic tasks over the tactical. The ultimate CIO goal should be to earn an equal say at the C-level table, to become an integral aspect of all overall business functions, not merely the technical ones.
A simple but effective example of this is ‘big data’. How are you approaching this issue? Many CEOs are asking for ways to manage exponential growth of the company’s structured and unstructured data. A merely tactical CIO will come up with a viable way to manage that data. A strategic CIO will devise a structure that not only manages the data, but moulds it into valuable business intelligence. Again, IT does not have to be separate from the sales team or the marketing department, the quality assurance groups, or the operational management – collaboration is key. CIOs can forge this integration by aligning their IT team’s goals with broader company initiatives, and volunteering to fill in necessary gaps in the overall business plan. CIOs have to keep themselves in the know regarding other departments’ programs, and ask questions such as: “How can IT fit into this? Where can we help? How can we make this more efficient?”
Similarly, CIOs can start pioneering IT change by building relationships. Whether they are cross-department or crosslevel, IT will benefit from intra-company exposure. Increased interaction with clients and customers beyond your internal sphere is another important step to making what some believe to be an obscure function more transparent. Finally, a touch of flexibility and creativity from CIOs, and encouraged throughout the IT ranks, will make departments more dynamic, productive and relevant to an organisation’s future.
Ultimately, there is little IT departments can do to halt or prevent certain phenomena. With strong leadership and a fresh outlook, however, they can not only prepare for whatever comes next, but determine it completely.
Peter Wilson is Datacom’s managing director of systems for Australia and Asia. His vision ensures every Datacom location is equipped with the world-class knowledge and capabilities necessary to help enterprises transform their IT department.
This article was first published in Inside SAP Winter 2012.
