I believe that IT Departments, and CIOs in particular, are facing extinction - well, irrelevance at least. Why? Because a number of IT trends have given organisations a new take on IT: Cloud, mobility, BYOD, IT consumerisation (where executives look to the mearket before they look to the IT department, for innovation). All of these, and more, mean that many executives will think they can do without the IT Department - or at least that their IT Department is not relevant to business results. There are options for CIOs, but they involve a radical change of mind-set - Here’s a teaser: Why do we even call it the IT Department? They’ve never done the "I" and now the "T" is provided elsewhere

1. Terry White
terryw@cxo-advisor.co.za
CXO Advisor
Advise Innovate Change
Trends that threaten the IT Department

2. Good IT trends are good for everyone… Yes?
In the early 1990’s e-mail was a great tool
 It allowed ‘instant’ communication
 It allowed ‘free’ mail to be distributed
 It allowed mass mailing at “no cost”
 It removed a whole layer of workers (Remember the
typing pool?)
 It allowed cross boundary communications – direct
• E-mail your CEO, the cleaners, your competitors, and
clients

3. Or are they?
In the early 1990’s e-mail was a great tool
 It allowed ‘instant’ communication
 It allowed ‘free’ mail to be distributed
 It allowed mass mailing at no cost
 It removed a whole layer of workers (Remember the
typing pool?)
 It allowed cross boundary communications – direct
• E-mail your CEO, the cleaners, your competitors, and
clients
When was the last time you received a
Christmas Card?

4. This ‘good’ trend threatened industries
In the early 1990’s e-mail was a great tool
 It allowed ‘instant’ communication
 It allowed ‘free’ mail to be distributed
 It allowed mass mailing at no cost
 It removed a whole layer of workers (Remember the
typing pool?)
 It allowed cross boundary communications – direct
• E-mail your CEO, the cleaners, your competitors, and
clients
WHAT IF YOU ARE A POST OFFICE?

5. Good trends threaten the unwary
In the early 1990’s e-mail was a great tool
 It allowed ‘instant’ communication
 It allowed ‘free’ mail to be distributed
 It allowed mass mailing at no cost
 It removed a whole layer of workers (Remember the
typing pool?)
 It allowed cross boundary communications – direct
• E-mail your CEO, the cleaners, your competitors, and
clients
E-mail has wiped out at least
1/3 of post office revenues

6. Survivors are in a different business now
In the early 1990’s e-mail was a great tool
 It allowed ‘instant’ communication
 It allowed ‘free’ mail to be distributed
 It allowed mass mailing at no cost
 It removed a whole layer of workers (Remember the
typing pool?)
 It allowed cross boundary communications – direct
• E-mail your CEO, the cleaners, your competitors, and
clients
E-mail has forced Post Offices to radically change their
business models:
Their major business is now order fulfilment

7. But they still do the old stuff as well
In the early 1990’s e-mail was a great tool
 It allowed ‘instant’ communication
 It allowed ‘free’ mail to be distributed
 It allowed mass mailing at no cost
 It removed a whole layer of workers (Remember the
typing pool?)
 It allowed cross boundary communications – direct
• E-mail your CEO, the cleaners, your competitors, and
clients
Oh yes, they also deliver letters

8. Current IT trends threaten IT Departments
Here are some trends that threaten the way IT works in
organisations:
 Cloud services
 BYOD
 Mobility
 Connectivity
 IT Consumerization
 Big data
 Security and identity

9. Current IT trends threaten IT Departments
Here are some trends that threaten the way IT works in
organisations:
 Cloud services
 BYOD
 Mobility
 Connectivity
 IT Consumerization
 Big data
 Security and identity
But executives and employees love them
They’re “good trends”

10. Cloud Services threatens IT Departments
What organisations see and like:
 Services delivered almost instantly
 On demand – I want it, I get it
 Good enough now – can start work immediately
 Useable wherever needed – just need the internet
 Pay per use – can fit my budget
 Continuously evolving- new cool things every week
What threatens IT Departments
 Executives will expect IT to deliver in the same way

11. BYOD threatens IT Departments
What organisations see and like:
 Employees can bring personally owned mobile devices
(laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their workplace, and
use those devices to access privileged company information
and applications.
What threatens IT Departments
 BYOE: Employees will expect to bring everything about their
outside the office work patterns to the office, and will expect
to be supported, or they’ll go elsewhere
 There must be fewer standards, fewer off-limits sites,
marginal security

12. Mobility threatens IT Departments
What organisations see and like:
 The ability to use computing capability without a pre-defined
location and/or connection to a network to publish and/or
subscribe to information
What threatens IT Departments
 Workers will work where they are, at any time and will
expect access to organisational systems
 Workers will expect all enterprise systems to be available in
mobile formats
 Workers will expect extreme ease of use: “I can do whatever
I want or need … now”

13. Connectivity threatens IT Departments
What organisations see and like:
 The ability to connect to anyone anywhere – friends,
competitors, peers, all over the world
 The ability to compare experiences with anyone
 The ability to find information about anything and anyone
What threatens IT Departments
 Executives and employees talk to everyone – they compare
experiences, ‘like’ other technologies, and discuss strengths
and weaknesses of their own organisation
 Executives expect the same freedoms within their own
organisations
 Could there be an ‘Arab Spring’ in your organisation: (Hint –
you’re the bad guy)

14. IT Consumerization threatens IT Departments
What organisations see and like:
 New information technology emerges first in the consumer
market and then spread into business and government
organizations
What threatens IT Departments
 Executives stop looking to the IT department for solutions
 They find them and expect IT to integrate and support them

15. Big data threatens IT Departments
What organisations see and like:
 Growing data volumes, faster analysis leading to fact-based
decision making, real-time optimization, rapid response to
customer demands
What threatens IT Departments
 Change from inside-out thinking: Here’s our products /
services – let’s sell them
 To outside-in thinking: Here’s what people want, need, and
are doing – what must we do to satisfy them?
 Radically fast development of products and services
 IT’s mechanistic approach to delivery cannot meet business
demands

16. Security and identity threats to IT Departments
What organisations see and like:
 Multiple devices, multiple ID’s, multiple sources of data,
working outside the firewall is the norm
What threatens IT Departments
 You cannot control it all
 You can control only what you must (usually about 5% of
data)
 No firewalls: Build a Fort Know just for the 5% that you must
control
 Context sensitive security: Who are you, where are you, what
device, what time is it, what should you be able to do
• Security of one

17. In summary
What organisations see and like:
 Most computing is happening outside the IT department
What threatens IT Departments
 Most computing is happening outside the IT department

18. What do these trends mean for IT Departments?
Cloud services: A radically different expectation of how IT
delivers to the business (if at all) – or I’ll get it elsewhere
BYOD: I’ll work my way, in spite of the IT Department
Mobility: IT Departments don’t own or control users
anymore – they will work where, when, and how they want
Connectivity: Everyone, and everything is connected.
Except in your organisation? (And who’s fault is that?)
IT Consumerization: If you’re not seen as innovators and
enablers, you’re just back-room gofers
Big data: IT must be radically agile to develop within days if
not hours
Security and identity: You can’t control it. Control only
what you must.

19. Sigh…
So here’s what the threatened say:
 “They” must conform to our standards…
 We’ll see about that!...
 But it’s my job to…
 They can’t…

20. Sigh…
So here’s what the threatened say:
 “They” must conform to our standards…
 We’ll see about that!...
 But it’s my job to…
 They can’t…
Don’t stand too close to them… They won’t be
around long

21. Hmmm…
Here’s what the leaders of IT say:
 What is our new role in delivering business results
and providing leadership?
 How can we deliver at the speed of business?
 How do we manage technology (as against provide
it)?

22. Hmmm…
Here’s what the leaders of IT say:
 What is our new role in delivering business results
and providing leadership?
 How can we deliver at the speed of business?
 How do we manage technology (as against provide
it)?
Stand behind them – they may prevail if they’re
prepared to be radically different
They won’t even be the IT Department anymore
 They’ll be ACT: Applied, Competitive, Technologies

23. DO IT TO YOURSELF BEFORE SOMEONE DOES IT TO YOU
Terry White
terryw@cxo-advisor.co.za