Why do employees have simple and user-friendly IT in their private life, while at work they are confronted with complex business IT? Today’s employees want to enjoy the same technology experience at work as they do in their personal lives. As a result, the majority of employees do not have an appreciation of how complex modern business infrastructures are.
The main issue is that most IT teams tend to be a bit autistic. They are working in their office at their desk, blind of the real problem. Blind of the problem which is slow, complex and unfriendly IT that causes sending large files with the private secure network to take for hours. Sending it over We-Transfer is simply much easier. IT in this case does no longer enable the business, it only slows it down and corrupts its security integrity. It is time for a change.
Complexity in the IT infrastructure
A change has to come in the way IT is being operated. Fixing a bug for consumers only takes a few days, while a bug in the business market can take weeks or even months to solve.
One of the reasons for the huge bug fixing delay is the complex internal IT environment that has been made extremely secure, even though the CEO is discussing his confidential information on potential acquisitions in the hallway. Obviously, IT should be secure, but it still has to be functional. The focus on IT security is too unbalanced. Shouldn’t IT security at a company be a more holistic protection services that actually enables the business instead of hindering it?
The answer is a simple yes, but how can you reduce the IT complexity that has taken a hold of your company?
First of all, you need strong executive support. Successful simplification projects require a huge change, not only in the IT organization, but also for the users.
Secondly, you need courage and an entrepreneurial mind set. You have to be committed to dealing with the pain. It is not something you do with soft hands. People have built and used these systems and they get attached to it. Sometimes you just have to call somebody’s baby ugly, turn it off, and setup a new, better system. It will help you move to a fundamentally new, more effective situation.
Remember your core business
Thirdly, you need to remember your core business. Most enterprises are not in the IT infrastructure business. Just as they don’t generate their own electricity, build the vehicles in their car fleet, or produce advertisements. For most enterprises it makes no sense to own and operate the bulk of their IT infrastructure. Therefore, the best thing you can do is migrating to a third party service integrator and the cloud. This will free up valuable resources, which you can use to focus on your core operations and improve the quality of services for users.
“For most enterprises it makes no sense to own and operate the bulk of their infrastructure.”
Lastly, you should benefit from agile software development techniques to adapt faster, to innovate faster and to be more effective. Agile development replaces the old, slow waterfall development circles. With agile working you can take advantage of expertise and input from cross-functional teams. It will also enable your organization to respond more quickly to changes in the market.
What are you going to do tomorrow?
Concretely, tomorrow you are going to hunt for a better insight in the problems of your IT and the costs it involves to solve it. Build your case to get executive support. We are entering into a new digitized world with a 24/7 connectivity. It is time to rethink your IT strategy. Use IT as a utility and stay true to your core competences. Understand your processes, your competition and your differentiation. Stop complexity and start simplicity.
Ludo Bruinen, marketingmedewerker onepoint NL/Gatwickstraat 15 Amsterdam
