{"id":53792,"date":"2014-04-16T08:39:19","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T13:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=53792"},"modified":"2014-04-16T20:59:14","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T01:59:14","slug":"department-it-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2014\/04\/department-it-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the IT department, as we know it, on its way out?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although IT is essential to most businesses, a recent survey by analyst firm, McKinsey, suggest that executives are becoming less satisfied with the role and performance of IT in their organisations. Could the IT department, as we know it, be on its way out?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"JoiningAcross virtually all organisations, regardless of size, Information Technology (IT) is critical, as it fosters productivity, communications, connectivity, and business efficiency, among other things. In larger organisations, it may be necessary to have a dedicated IT department to ensure those operations are being properly maintained and support the larger organisational goals and objectives.<\/p>\n

However, the recently published findings of a McKinsey Global Survey on business and technology strategy<\/a> indicate that although business executives might appreciate the strategic value of their firm\u2019s IT departments, increasingly, they are having some difficulty with those departments’ role and performance. In this article, we highlight some of the key findings of the survey, along with changes that might be necessary to allow IT departments to thrive.<\/p>\n

Changing priorities<\/h3>\n

Traditionally, the primary purpose of IT (and consequently IT departments) has been as a cost centre \u2013 it costs a firm money to operate but does not contribute directly to the firm’s profit, which was corroborated by the results of earlier McKinsey surveys. However, in the most recent exercise<\/a>, respondents identified the following IT priorities in order of decreasing importance:<\/p>\n