4 Top symptoms of inefficient IT Department and IT Investment
New technology innovations are driving massive efficiency gains in corporations. Companies are doing more with less in almost every area of their business. That means if you haven’t tried to improve your efficiency in a while, there’s almost certainly room for immediate improvement. But, of course, it’s never really that simple, is it? You can’t simply blindly believe in the benefits of technology and invest in every piece of software or hardware that comes knocking at your door. see details on low performing IT dept./technology
Recent research from Harvard Business Review shows that most c-level executives haven’t realized much business value from the high-priced technology they have installed. Meanwhile, the list of seemingly necessary IT capabilities continues to grow, and IT spending continues to consume an increasing percentage of their budgets. Where’s the payback? see impact on revenue
Indeed, research show that that most organizations are not generating the value from IT investments that they could be. The companies that manage their IT investments most successfully generate returns that are as much as 40% higher than those of their competitors.
Here’s 4 symptoms of lower return from IT Investments
Un-managed Technology and business Risks: Modern technology innovations not only reduce and manage technology risks but most importantly provide options to mitigate business risks. IT deployment align with business strategy should be capable of lowering business and technology risks. If you feel that your either technology or business risks are not managed properly, it’s indication of lack of IT strategy (roadmap) to align business goals with IT initiatives. Security, like reliability and responsiveness, is a feature of IT systems that requires companies to weigh the level of protection they want against the amount they are willing to spend. read more on business risks
Rework same IT work over and over: All technology related issues in IT department are usually symptoms of lack of IT process. If your IT staff is firefighting mode and focus on working on going similar IT issues over and over, this is usually sign of missing IT process. A mature and proven IT process allows IT departments to mitigate root cause of technical issues instead of workarounds or temporary solutions. Also, documentation of all technology related issues is key resource to analyze these problems. Here’s list of items for hard & soft cost.
Different outcome than expected from IT Projects: The recurring concern in Harvard research from executives in their interviews—that IT efforts fail to generate the intended business results and is often accompanied by some finger-pointing. There must be something wrong with either business requirements or the IT function in our company. We have found, however, that the problem more often reveals that something is wrong with the way non-IT executives are managing IT-enabled change in the organization and either lack of planning or lack of translating business requirements into technology requirements is missing ingredients. see details on decision impact
Higher business soft cost and IT impact: IT Roadmap/Strategy based on opinion/discussion not test results: Increasingly, executives are recognizing the significant impact of technology on business soft cost and strategic benefits that come from IT alignments. This approach leverages technology expertise across the company, permits large and cost-effective contracts with software suppliers, and facilitates global business processes. At the same time, though, technology process can manage risks (technology and business) and lower biggest cost in any business – soft cost.
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Also review – Impact on Revenue blog
