The IT Reality Check

InformationWeek tells a depressing, if not surprising, story

“But when we asked 382 business pros--a mix of IT and non-IT people--about how IT is perceived in their companies, we were shocked by what we found in both the responses and the emotional comments that accompanied them.

The data shows a disparity between how IT views its performance (not bad) and how non-IT pros view it (not good). For example, asked if their companies' business users are at least moderately happy with the quality, timeliness, and cost of IT projects, two-thirds of the IT pros who responded to our survey said yes, but just half of non-IT pros said so. Asked if IT is foremost a support or maintenance organization (as opposed to the innovation engine it might want to be), 39% of IT pros agreed, but 54% of non-IT pros agreed. Again and again, the data shows a disturbing gap between IT's perception of itself as reasonably innovative and effective, and non-IT's lukewarm view.

As powerful as the data is, the free-form responses we received--and we got dozens of them--cast an even harsher light”

Of course, many technology vendors are only too eager to pile on and say things like “oh, we long ago gave up on IT and only sell to business executives”. Not so fast. Their project charges and maintenance fees and roaming charges are classified as IT spend at most companies. And most executives and analysts are  waking up to the fact that 80 to 90% of their IT/telecom spend is with vendors. So, when the business executives malign IT, they are also blaming the vendors.

So, not surprisingly, Randy Mott, CIO at GM who is quoted in the article has announced plans to move from 90% outsourced to 90% insourced and to start with has planned to transfer 3,000 staff from his outsourcer (and former employer) HP.

Expect more such moves. The expectation and composition of IT are going through a tidal change.