There are still a few occupations and industries that can get through a day without needing some form of technology, but they are few and far between.
Traditionally, in large organisations, it was the Finance department that wielded all the power. If you wanted to make something happen, you generally had to convince someone from the Finance department before you got the full mandate to proceed.
This control was fuelled by the air of mystery that shrouds Finance, for anyone who is not trained in financial matters. You only have to mutter ‘Receivables Ledger’, ‘Accruals’ or ‘Double-entry bookkeeping’ to the uninitiated and they scurry away with their tails between their legs, apologising as they go for daring to challenge Finance. Accountancy looks difficult – all those pages of numbers and ratios. If maths isn’t your forte, it can be intimidating.
Of course, the activities of most companies are inextricably linked to their financial fortunes. It’s a rare Finance Director or CFO who can keep saying ‘yes’ to every worthwhile project or investment and when someone has to say ‘no’ it’s invariably someone from Finance.
This has meant that traditionally, business has been limited and controlled by Finance. Traditionally.
In modern organisations, the balance of power is different. It’s not just money that enables work, it’s technology too. Practically everything that happens in a modern organisation is powered by technology. There are desktop computers that enable people to manage information, create documents and communicate with each other. There are smart telephone systems that manage communication with customers. There’s manufacturing technology, high-tech aids to research and development, websites and intelligent CRM that learns from every customer interaction. Even the coffee machine is controlled by micro-chip.
Most business projects and investments involve technology, either the introduction of new technology or using current technology in new ways. And although most people are fairly IT-literate in the sense of knowing how to use a pc at home and at work and maybe even have some understanding of networks, when it comes to all the clever stuff that goes on in the IT Department, a lot of people are in awe of the technology and the way that new technology can create massive changes very quickly.
This means that now, the IT Department also has power and control. Business projects are limited, not just by money, but also by tech capability. Even if the money can be found, the technology has to be managed and it’s more and more likely that if someone has to say ‘no’ it could be someone from IT.
This creates a lot of problems. And highlights some that were already there.
One existing problem, that in most companies is so deep-rooted that everyone just accepts it, is that – except in the smallest companies and in tech companies – the IT department is detached from the rest of the organisation.
The IT department thinks of everyone else as ‘the Business’ and doesn’t include IT in the business. ‘The Business’ usually regards IT as a support function and dismisses them as ‘geeks and freaks’ who don’t know anything except technology.
Any dealings people in ‘the Business’ have with IT is treated like a visit to a foreign country. They don’t speak the same language, they don’t have the same culture and they don’t like tourists very much.
It’s easy, then, for IT to become a universal whipping boy.
If something goes wrong, it’s easy to blame ‘the IT’. Or just ‘IT’.
IT gets the blame for failures of equipment, regardless of whether it was the right equipment for the job, was being used appropriately or had been maintained correctly.
IT gets the blame for software problems and for the limitations of software that the IT Department may not have been involved in choosing.
IT gets the blame for the late delivery of projects, even though the delays may not be their fault.
IT gets the blame when anything related to technology is involved in a problem and little distinction is made between the various facets of IT. The lack of knowledge about technology in operational departments can add to the frustration all round. People compare business technology to their home computers and wonder why new installations take so long. They disregard the need for cyber-security or ignore the rules of good governance. The technology professionals are often seen as pedantic and unhelpful.
The result, in many organisations, is that technology is seen as a blocker to business success, rather than the enabler it should be. Small wonder that the catch-phrase ‘computer says no’ touched so many people!
It’s not surprising either, that most companies have their official IT and also a proliferation of ‘shadow IT’ installations – the website built by a contact of the Marketing Director, that the IT Department can’t access, or the e-commerce package the finance team bought that doesn’t integrate seamlessly with the invoicing system. Every CIO has examples of this. Some are better at quashing the shadow IT culture than others, but they all know it’s an indicator of their colleagues’ lack of faith in their own IT Department.
The Paradigm Shift
This disturbing and often stressful state of affairs is probably not going to go away. It’s part of a total paradigm shift that is seeing Technology – in all its guises – move from the edge of the organisation to its centre. And for modern business to succeed, technology must be at its heart.
This means that business strategy and activity needs to be based on solid technology and sound technical knowledge. Technology is enabling competitive advantage in many markets, but it only delivers those benefits if the organisation is structured to facilitate the kind of interaction between departments that results in coherent, sensible plans that everyone can believe in.
Technology is moving closer and closer to the customer. IT was traditionally a ‘back office’ function and IT professionals rarely had to meet or impress customers. Now, technology might provide the principal way that a customer interacts with an organisation. Banking is an obvious example. It doesn’t mean that all tech experts are spending their days with customers, but it does mean that they need a greater understanding of customers and can have a huge impact on the relationship between the company and its target market.
When an organisation looks for innovation, it looks first to technology. CIOs are being tasked with driving innovation and change as well as supplying the right technology. There is pressure on IT departments to deliver innovative solutions and to do so at a pace that will leave the competition standing. Some thrive on the challenge, some do not.
It’s clear that, instead of being a ‘support service’ like HR, Purchasing or Legal, IT now has a different place in the modern organisation. IT has become an operational department, it pervades everything, it drives progress (or not!) and supports Business As Usual. Quite simply, most companies can’t do without it.
Most companies are dependent on technology for their success.
Which means that those companies are dependent on the people who control the technology.
And this is where – for me – it gets really interesting…
Next time, I’ll share with you my analysis of the personality types you find in IT and what that means for all of the non-techie business leaders who rely on them.
