The Evolving Role of Organizational IT

I recently read two blog postings that touched on the future of organizational IT with regard to the rollout of new technology. The first entry encapsulated the view of venture capitalist Kevin Efrusy of Accel Partners. Kevin’s take is he is increasingly seeing technology sold directly to end users – the folks who pay for and receive the benefit from new technology. In fact, he’s putting his money where his mouth is by funding companies that deliver solutions users can find, buy and implement (or at least pilot), on their own.

The second posting was from Jeremy Geelan covering an interview he did with Rod Smith from IBM. Based on the posting title, the posting was supposed to be about IBM’s SMASH (secured mashups) project. However, the focus quickly switched to the concept of user empowerment. The idea being that organizations have pockets of non-technical users who are constantly looking for new technologies that can help them become more productive. He calls this group “shadow IT”. Cool name. No doubt, the concept of mashup and situational applications plays directly into the hands of these groups.

I strongly agree with both gentlemen’s sentiments. In fact, we see it ourselves everyday. While we spend a lot of time speaking with IT folks about how Ratchet-X can help an organization integrate the unintegratable, increasingly, we are brought into organizations by the end users who will directly benefit from a Ratchet-X implementation. Overall, I think greater user involvement in finding, evaluating and even piloting technologies is a good think. However, where there is opportunity, there is danger. While these user groups have the best of intentions in mind when seeking a solution, their views are often myopic and skewed towards their specific needs. This is totally understandable. Salesman are looking for tools that help them sell more, faster and better. They’re not in the business of worrying about what the folks in Accounting need. Nor should they be, that’s not their job. However, if they are bringing new technology into an organization, someone has to think about scale, integration, support and maintenance. This IT’s job.

IT’s role is changing in that in the past, requirements were developed and a solution was devised, products selected and rolled-out. Today, IT is often not hearing about these solutions until they’ve been piloted by shadow IT. Operating in this environment requires a shift in focus from deciding and selecting to sheparding and shaping. While IT does not want to discourage the valuable service shadow IT provides, it can’t let the process run amuck. IT must keep its head in the game and make sure these situational solutions are coordinated so they can be integrated and managed effectively. I often hear folks talk about a day when it won’t matter what disparate groups bring into the organization because everything will “just talk to each other through XML”. OK, when that day gets here, I’m all for it. However, until then, IT will needs to recognize its evolving role from systems dictator to user educator, guide and occasionally, bouncer.