By Bryan Dean: BSM Research.
One of the benefits of performing blind, unbiased research (if there is such a thing) is hearing the meek voice of IT’s huddled masses… versus the boisterous song of the advanced early adopters. When concentrating solely on early adopters, one might believe that IT organizations are failing if they are not quickly advancing toward BSM/ITSM nirvana. If you have been following this series of “BSM Evolution” posts, you have seen me describe several organizations aggressively advancing their IT capabilities. A research project we did a couple years ago, however, gave me an appreciation for how hard it can be for some IT to elevate their investment profile to reach the loftier BSM/ITSM goals. The fact is, many businesses simply have lower goals and expectations for the role that IT plays in the business. Granted, many business leaders are not intuitively aware of IT’s potential value; and part of IT’s job is to build trust and market the potential return on IT investments. But, there comes a point at which IT must come to terms with the reality of their expected role in the business and the associated investment profile. I will outline the research and some of the key findings in part 1 of this post, and follow up with some observations in part 2.
The Research:
To call this researched unbiased would be inaccurate. We actively recruited IT professionals who met these and additional criteria:
· Medium-large private enterprises currently investing to improve IT
· IT supports business critical applications and infrastructure
· IT service down-time or degradation has measurable business impact
· Demonstrable investment in IT process and management tools
· Individuals were direct decision makers and influencers of IT budget priorities
The participants generally fell into one of two subgroups:
A. “IT Executives” (CIO’s, CTO’s, SR VP of IT, etc.)
B. “IT Directors” (IT Operations, Service Management, Application Development, etc.)
The research covered many topics including understanding the role that IT played in the business, and the related implications. The information gathered was from IT’s perspective, so that bias must also be taken into account.
The Results:
This is a gross simplification of the results, but based on responses to many questions and discussion, the participants could be segmented into three major buckets that indicate their IT’s current role in the business:
Segment A: “Business Innovation Partner”
· Business and IT are equal partners in business process design, measurement, analysis and optimization
· High IT investment to revenue ratio
· Actively transforming IT to interrelate IT services to business processes
· Utilize real-time, automated IT & business measurement; with dynamic capacity adjustment
· ~20% of IT Execs put themselves in this bucket; less than 5% of IT Directors
Segment B: “Business / IT Service Providers”
· Business leaders drive business process design, analysis and optimization; IT partners with business to measure and advise on optimization
· Medium to high IT investment to revenue ratio
· Actively transforming IT service management processes and tools
· Provide IT dashboards & regular service level / business impact reports; respond relatively quickly to adjust capacity
· ~50% of IT Execs put themselves in this bucket; ~ 35% of IT Directors
Segment C: “Operate IT Supporting Business”
· Business drives all aspects of business process design, measurement, analysis and optimization; IT’s job is to run IT well, thus supporting the business
· Low-medium IT investment to revenue ratio
· Targeted improvements in IT process and toolset
· Provide IT performance and availability metrics; adjust capacity via periodic projects
· ~30% IT Execs put themselves in this bucket; ~60% of IT Directors
Observations on Results
So as not to bludgeon the reader with too many words (as is my habit), I will save my detailed observations for part 2 of this post. I’ll examine the following:
· The percentage spread across the segments leading directly to different goals and investment levels
· There is a fairly predictable evolution of management software capabilities and requirements associated with the segments
· Notice the perception gap between IT Execs and IT Directors
· Many participants struggled to categorizie themselves because of the gap at their company between business perception and IT perception
Posted
04-22-2009 8:59 AM
by
adsey007