There are a number of changes coming at organisations that will make the way IT departments operate now untenable. IT departments and CIOs need to change themselves now - or become irrelevant

1. CXO Advisor
terryw@cxo-advisor.co.za
The Death of the
IT Department

2. When to change?
B
A C
D

3. When to change?
B Change at A
A C
For • Have the resources
• Stay ahead of the rest
D • How do you know you’re at A
Against • “Don’t change a winning formula”
• “My job depends on A”

4. When to change?
B
Change at B
C
• Have the resources
A
For • The trend is pretty clear
D
Against • “This is temporary adjustment”
• “It’s always worked in the past”
• “My job depends on B”

5. When to change?
B Change at C
A C • The writing’s on the wall
For • Have definite use cases
• Not far to catch up
D
• “It’s them (workers, competition)”
Against • “Not invented here”
• “My job depends on C”

6. When to change?
B
A C Change at D
• Backs to the wall – can take
For drastic action
D
• It’s us
• “No resources”
Against
• “All the good people have left”
• “My job depends on D”

7. When to change?
Change at A
• Have the resources
• Stay ahead of the rest
• How do you know you’re at A
• “Don’t change a winning formula”
• “My job depends on A”
Change at B
B • Have the resources
• The trend is pretty clear
A C • “This is temporary adjustment”
• “It’s always worked in the past”
• “My job depends on B”
D
Change at C
• The writing’s on the wall
• Have definite use cases
• Not far to catch up
• “It’s them (workers, competition)”
• “Not invented here”
• “My job depends on C”
Change at D
• Backs to the wall – can take drastic action
• It’s us
• “No resources”
• “All the good people have left”
• “My job depends on D”
IT: the way it delivers, its role, its skills, and its
continued existence is at least at point ….?

8. The nature of change
Boiling frogs
Continuous / incremental
change
You can see it happening
all the time, but you’re
too “busy” to notice
Busy:
• Comfortable
• Political
• Gaming
• Inept

9. The nature of change
Alien invaders
Discontinuous / Instant
change
You don’t see it coming,
and can’t understand the
implications when it does
Don’t see:
• Comfortable
• Not looking
• Selectively blind
• Paradigm bound

10. The nature of change
Boiling frogs Alien invaders
Continuous / incremental Discontinuous / Instant
change change
You can see it happening You don’t see it coming,
all the time, but you’re and can’t understand the
too “busy” to notice implications when it does
Busy: Don’t see:
• Comfortable • Comfortable
• Political • Not looking
• Gaming • Selectively blind
• Inept • Paradigm bound

11. Boiling frogs for IT – You can see it. Now do something
useful
Cloud
People say: “Ah but Cloud is an old technology. Been around for years!
This is true (ish)
But Cloud is about the delivery model (on demand, self service), the service
model (granular, elastic) and the business model (closely metered, pay as you
use, pay for only what you use)
So Cloud is a significant change in the IT environment – because it’s not about
the technology

12. Boiling frogs for IT – You can see it. Now do something
useful
BYOD
Bring your own device is a litmus test- individuals are using their own IT,
irrespective of what IT departments tell them!

13. Boiling frogs for IT – You can see it. Now do something
useful
Consumerization of IT – Familiarity / competence
IT departments are not the experts anymore
You want a technical expert – call a vendor / consultant
You want an IT use in business expert – call a user
Users, and executives use the commercial experience as a yardstick of IT’s
performance – if they can buy a laptop this afternoon, and be productive on
an app they bought at the same time – why are IT not the same in their
provisioning? Change requests – Bah!
Executives won’t take IT bullshit any more – FUD doesn’t work

14. Boiling frogs for IT – You can see it. Now do something
useful
Connectedness
Expect the Arab Spring of IT – people are talking to each other, comparing IT
experiences, checking out what’s possible – IT departments can’t stop the rise
in expectations and the degradation of satisfaction with IT performance (No
matter how much they try to control it)

15. Boiling frogs for IT – It’s about how you think – not what
you do
Cloud – It’s about the model not the technology
BYOD – It’s about self-empowerment, not devices
Consumerization of IT – It’s about no more FUD
Connectedness – Expect an Arab Spring in IT

16. Sails on the horizon for IT – surprises / ambushes /
invasions
Speed of change – three layers
Transaction volumes Transaction change
Innovation layer
Differentiation layer
Innovation layer
Transaction layer Differentiation layer
Transaction layer

17. Sails on the horizon for IT – surprises / ambushes /
invasions
Speed of change – three layers
While your transaction layer shouldn’t change often, what’s the pressure build-up
on your legacy systems? Are your legacy systems delaying business change?
How quickly can you change your differentiating apps?
And how quickly can you change your innovation layer – new markets, products,
channels – if you can’t change within two weeks, expect to fail at IT!
Transaction volumes Transaction change
Innovation layer
Differentiation layer
Innovation layer
Transaction layer Differentiation layer
Transaction layer

18. Sails on the horizon for IT – surprises / ambushes /
invasions
Big data / big analytics
Big data and analytics will change how businesses react to trends, customers
and competition
Outliers will start to define trends
Short-lived trends will create lucrative but short-lived products
Ultra-large computing capacities will be needed – you can’t build it or own it
yourself
Data administrators will become less important than data scientists and data
explorers

19. Sails on the horizon for IT – surprises / ambushes /
invasions
The clover-leaf organisation
Based on Charles Handy’s Shamrock organisation
The core IT role – what the company can’t buy
elsewhere – will be 10% of the current role
Outsource /
as a Service
Core Cust
Contract

20. Sails on the horizon for IT – surprises / ambushes /
invasions
Villaging
Expect your organisation to start using technology, social networks to set up
Barter exchanges, ecosystem environments, co-petition, crowd-sourcing as a
key modus operandi
What will IT do? (Because they can do this all without your help /
interference)
Will IT use villaging to deliver their services?

21. Sails on the horizon for IT – surprises / ambushes /
invasions
Speed of change – three layers
Big data / big analytics
The clover-leaf organisation
Villaging

22. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically

23. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up

24. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up
Influence more than control

25. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up
Influence more than control
Do as little as possible

26. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up
Influence more than control
Do as little as possible
Apply the 80:20 rule fiercely

27. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up
Influence more than control
Do as little as possible
Apply the 80:20 rule fiercely
Become a clover-leaf organisation

28. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up
Influence more than control
Do as little as possible
Apply the 80:20 rule fiercely
Become a clover-leaf organisation
Crowd source services

29. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up
Influence more than control
Do as little as possible
Apply the 80:20 rule fiercely
Become a clover-leaf organisation
Crowd source services
Go green / become resilient

30. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up
Influence more than control
Do as little as possible
Apply the 80:20 rule fiercely
Become a clover-leaf organisation
Crowd source services
Go green / become resilient
Outside in driven, not inside out

31. To survive (not thrive) IT will have to…
Speed up dramatically
Dumb down and wise up
Influence more than control
Do as little as possible
Play the 80:20 rule fiercely
Become a clover-leaf organisation
Crowd source services
Go green / become resilient
Outside in driven, not inside out
Change yourself before someone does it to you

32. Radical change for IT
Role in business

33. Radical change for IT
Role in business
Organisational model: Clover leaf

34. Radical change for IT
Role in business
Organisational model: Clover leaf
Skills sets: Commercial, business,
change/transformation

35. Radical change for IT
Role in business
Organisational model: Clover leaf
Skills sets: Commercial, business,
change/transformation
Delivery tools and models

36. Radical change for IT
Role in business
Organisational model: Clover leaf
Skills sets: Commercial, business,
change/transformation
Delivery tools and models
Control paradigm / governance

37. Radical change for IT
Role in business
Organisational model: Clover leaf
Skills sets: Commercial, business,
change/transformation
Delivery tools and models
Control paradigm / governance
Measures of IT success

38. Radical change for IT
Role in business
Organisational model: Clover leaf
Skills sets: Commercial, business,
change/transformation
Delivery tools and models
Control paradigm / governance
Measures of IT success
Cloudsource everything (Keep 5%)

39. C
IT’S DAYS ARE NUMBERED
This is the case for change
The next presentation will be focused on what IT departments
can and should do if they want to survive their own “Arab Spring”
Terry White
terryw@cxo-advisor.co.za