There are lots of stats out there about CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers), CFOs and COOs now spending more on IT than the IT department. Lots of this spend is on SaaS solutions and information centric solutions. The previously powerful IT department has dropped out of contention in many cases because its not seen as adding any value.
And what is the main reason for that?
Well the IT department, its traditional vendors and analysts really aren't about offering business value, they are about positioning technologies, and of course re-positioning new technologies that do the same things as the old ones but in a 'better' technical way.
But lets look at some business apps for a second and ask some questions
SAP - Is SAP ECC the 'best' technical solution? I think even the most ardent SAP fans would admit that this isn't the case, but it doesn't matter because what SAP does have is the operational processes the business wants.
SFDC - Is SFDC technically the best? Is the Force.com development language the best development language? Are their integration interfaces the very best that they could be... again I think everyone could point to areas of improvement but again the business doesn't care.
What about the various marketing engines out there? Indeed what about those things such as AWS or Google AdSense that people point to as technically excellent. Do business people care about that technical excellence?
No, and No.
The market is changing, people want to get value and that means we need as an industry to concentrate on delivering that value and not on arguing about pieces that no-one cares about. I talked about this before in Christmas SOA the fact that our job in IT is to deliver the outcome to the business without worrying them about the details of technology otherwise they will buy those outcomes from somewhere else, bleating about the technical imperfection of that other approach carries no weight when you've not demonstrated an ability to understand and deliver the right outcome.
IT needs to switch its focus to the 'I' (Information) and the outcome and stop this obsession with technology.
And what is the main reason for that?
Well the IT department, its traditional vendors and analysts really aren't about offering business value, they are about positioning technologies, and of course re-positioning new technologies that do the same things as the old ones but in a 'better' technical way.
But lets look at some business apps for a second and ask some questions
SAP - Is SAP ECC the 'best' technical solution? I think even the most ardent SAP fans would admit that this isn't the case, but it doesn't matter because what SAP does have is the operational processes the business wants.
SFDC - Is SFDC technically the best? Is the Force.com development language the best development language? Are their integration interfaces the very best that they could be... again I think everyone could point to areas of improvement but again the business doesn't care.
What about the various marketing engines out there? Indeed what about those things such as AWS or Google AdSense that people point to as technically excellent. Do business people care about that technical excellence?
No, and No.
The market is changing, people want to get value and that means we need as an industry to concentrate on delivering that value and not on arguing about pieces that no-one cares about. I talked about this before in Christmas SOA the fact that our job in IT is to deliver the outcome to the business without worrying them about the details of technology otherwise they will buy those outcomes from somewhere else, bleating about the technical imperfection of that other approach carries no weight when you've not demonstrated an ability to understand and deliver the right outcome.
IT needs to switch its focus to the 'I' (Information) and the outcome and stop this obsession with technology.
No comments:
Post a Comment