Couldn’t agree more. What business one is in, largely shapes and determines the place of IT. In a retail setting, which at its simplest level, is about buying and selling goods at a MARGIN, IT must be able to recognise exactly that: buying and selling goods at a margin.

If you sit at the table and talk about the latest operating system or more efficient servers ( however important that might be ), everything will be going above my head. But talk about how best and cost-effectively you can source goods, move them, and market them, we will be singing from the same hymn sheet.

When they do that, their role shifts from IT Department, to Strategic Business Support Unit ( or something like that ).

Though I agree with you Robert, I think the bigger issue is that the business world wants the role of IT to evolve, or perhaps more specifically broaden. What you describe is inherently a technician’s role.

IMO, what organisations are looking for is greater a contribution from IT to shape strategy, along with more a sophisticated suite of skills and competencies to make those organisations even more cutting edge and competitive.

Hence although infrastructure and hardware is, and will continue to be important, I think more “softer skills” are being demanded, and that is where the challenges lie…

Yes, we have some sclerotic organisations and practices to overcome. And yes, we need to change the conversation and the terminology we use to convey ideas. It is a long hard slog; years ago I attempted to sell ATMs to a Canadian bank that shall remain nameless. So we flew to the head office and we began the conversation by me telling the fella that our plan was to help them to improve market presence and the service to the market channels. He looked at me and asked what that had to do with ATMs! He never got it that his principal business was buying and selling money – and most definitely, the information about money! – using various transactional models!.

The problems of technology integration and useful purposes in business are largely about keen understanding of business processes…and the interventions necessary to meet set objectives. And often times technology plays the smallest but a most, if not the most, critical role.

The C-level ICT folks are now at the executive table but most of us are still suspected of having knowledge ONLY of technology. And some of that is largely our own fault; we do not speak up at meetings, we do not insist on information and analysis of same as pre-requisites for decision-making, we do not emphasize the feedback loop of that virtuous circle and the role of analytics in driving it, we rarely challenge decisions made even when the logic – or the plain evidence of your own 2 lying eyes – demand we do,

I always tell my colleagues to know the business you support, the market models employed for gain and the key flex points. Then learn how to read financial reports and balance sheets. And do not ever leave those discussions alone with the financiers and MBA-types; like the law and lawyers, they are far too important to cede the field to them.

Focus on results. If you know those and you study the processes via which they are delivered, you will see ways to enable better outcomes utilizing technologies.