Source:
Total Executive
Large corporations have long struggled to make their IT organisations more effective and more adaptable, often by reorganising the IT department itself. Yet the importance of restructuring may have been overstated. According to a recent Booz & Company survey, how your IT department is structured has little effect on how well it executes its mission and responds to changes in the business environment. Centralised, decentralised, hybrid, or federated—virtually any organisational scheme can get the job done. What does matter is the free flow of information and the proper allocation of decision rights.
The Flow of Information
Free-flowing information is more than three times more important than structure in promoting adaptability, a critical capability in volatile times. Yet most survey respondents stated that information does not flow freely within their IT organisations. IT line managers don’t have adequate access to suitable metrics and IT staff lack the information needed to understand the impact of their day-to-day choices. CIOs should work closely with senior business executives to ensure strategic alignment, and put processes and tools in place to make available to all levels of the IT organisation the information necessary to carry out the strategic mission.
Decision Rights
Survey respondents also highlighted widespread problems in decision-making: It is often unclear who has responsibility for decisions and the actions that follow. As a result, decisions are frequently second-guessed. CIOs should collaborate with peers in the business and in IT to put clearly defined and transparent decision processes in place.
Yes, IT effectiveness can be improved—without restructuring the IT function yet again. By engaging actively with the business and not ring-fencing the IT function, CIOs can improve the most important drivers of IT organisation effectiveness—information flow and decision-making.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment