IT Value
IT Value defined
The concept of IT
value is reasonably well understood (Google has over 1.5 million
references). In essence it refers to
the value derived from investing in IT. Thus IT value must result in some form
of business value. The beneficiary of the business value may be a user or a
customer.
The IT Value Chain
This concept is less
well understood. The IT value chain often starts outside the organisation and
usually ends with the client.
External links in the
chain include:
- IT service providers
- IT product providers
- Professional service providers
- Including lawyers, accountants, management consultants
- IT recruitment agencies
- IT candidates hoping for employment within the IT department.
Internal links
include:
- The IT department
- The users
- Senior executives
- Procurement department
- HR department
- Training department
- Recruitment.
Each link along the
chain is a potential amplifier or dampener of IT value.
IT value comes from a
variety of sources including:
- Strategy management
- Process management
- Technology management
- Service management
- Circulation management
- Data
- Information
- Knowledge
- Good governance.
We at Auridian believe
that it is the people in the chain that will have the most impact on the level
of value derived.
It’s all about people
- No amount of strategic planning will deliver value if the CIO
has no influence over business strategy
- No amount of process management will deliver value if the
technologists do not influence the process engineering
- No amount of technology management will deliver value if the
technologists cannot articulate the benefits of the technology to the
senior executives
- No amount of service management will deliver value if the
technologists and users see each other as the enemy
- No amount of circulation management will deliver value if the
technologists think they know what the business requires without
consulting with the users.
To be effective the
people that operate along the IT value chain need to be:
- Empathic to those linking to them
- Capable of influencing those linking to them
- Partnership oriented.
For many professionals
this will be threatening. A value amplifying chain needs people to become less
department-centric and more value-centric. We need to move from enmity, through
reluctant buyer-supplier, to partnership.
The following
relationships are examples of this:
- Candidate - IT recruiter
- IT supplier - Boardroom
- CIO - boardroom
- User - technologist
- IT supplier - Procurement
- Technologist – Training department
Today many of these
relationships are dysfunctional. Each one becoming an IT value vortex.
Auridian’s role
Auridian is a
people-development company focusing on the IT value chain. We amplify the
return on our clients’ IT investment. We also work with external IT suppliers
to ensure they promote and deliver their services with enhanced IT value in
mind
Click here to email us or call us
on +44 (0) 1494 723 777 if you would like Auridian to help your organization
truly deliver value.
