T-Time

People working in IT can get hung up on the “evolution or revolution” debate. When does your IT you just need a bit of tweaking; and when do you need full-throttle IT transformation? For me, there are five symptoms that show an organisation needs the full monty – this questionnaire walks you through them:

1)  Is your screen still black and green?

If it is, you’re using some 30+-year-old technology that hasn’t yet made it into the digital age, and it’s time to bite the transformation bullet. And bear in mind, black-and-green is indicative of Big-Hair 80s technology in its underwear. There are plenty of those systems dressed up in a party frock, with modern-looking interface screens but that are still really black and green underneath….

2)  Is your Head of IT ranked below C-Suite level?

If he/she is, then this person – and this discipline - is not considered to be integral to the business. He/she is not in a position to influence strategic decisions. IT is therefore still being seen as a tool, not an integrated enabler. Those days are coming to an end.

As the IT lead, you can prove the worth to the business by the act of transforming. As the business comes to realise what IT can do for it – and where it can take the organisation – your worth will become immediately apparent.

3)  Does your technology dictate your processes?

You know the sort of thing: Barry gets the figures off the system and exports them to a spreadsheet. He then passes that spreadsheet onto Graham, who cross-references it with his spreadsheet. Then he sends it back to Janice who adds it up and writes a paragraph to go with it. And bingo! All the answers you need in just three hours and 16 easy stages! Bad technology does nothing other than teach your team how to invest their time in developing ingenious local solutions….

4) Is technology is excluded from your R&D programme?

If you’re developing products and services without thinking about the technology content, then you’re a taxi firm that’s waiting to be overtaken by Uber. You need technology to help you to be disruptive in your sector, to innovate and to get the edge. You need it built in to your offer, not added on at the end – or you’re at risk of being overtaken by an app developed in a back-bedroom.

5)  Is your IT department still kept in cupboard?

Stand-alone IT departments are looking increasingly lonely. In these, technology people sit in their quiet office waiting to be invited to a day out in the rest of the company; or retreat there to escape the ear-bashing from irate colleagues who don’t know how to explain what the problem is.  Instead, embedding IT people into the other disciplines (e.g. Marketing, Finance, Production) has been proven to enable greater productivity. The host disciplines have less downtime; their systems become sleeker and faster with a technical person on the ground; and the Hero Techie spots and stops a disaster before it happens.