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Information Technology is often denigrated as being an expensive cost. If so, something is wrong, both inside the IT camp and within the wider company. A new outlook on modern business is required.

"IT is a cost centre, not a profit centre" is something I hear often.

The not-too-subtle implication is that IT does not contribute to the company's revenue raising activities and consequently the IT team should not participate in bonus structures, should not complain about having to explain to a salesman how to insert section breaks for the umpteenth time and most certainly should acknowledge that if only the company didn't have to spend cash on computers and software it wouldn't.

Obviously, these claims are absurd and to answer each one would take needless oxygen. I typically dismiss it by noting the payroll department has the highest costs and absolutely zero revenue. Can we run the business without payroll?

To my mind, the view that IT is a burden shows a fundamental sickness within the business.

First, what is the IT department doing to counter these views? What real actions are employed to demonstrate the value and solutions possible? Secondly, and what is often not considered, what is wrong with the business mindset that allowed this view to take root?

Gone, I believe, are the days when running a lean and efficient IT infrastructure was the chief goal for IT leaders. The truth is technology is so intertwined in business processes that cost controls, efficiency and robustness now are part of any manager's role.

While the IT head must ultimately take control, line managers and executive members alike must be held accountable for excess and waste of any kind within their departments. Squeezing greater efficiency from internal IT operations ought properly to be a baseline expectation, and not just from the designated IT manager, but from the entire business.

No, where the CIO can thrive and demonstrate higher value is elsewhere. Modern businesses operate in a high change, high risk and highly competitive economy. In this environment CIO's can thrive by continually evolving the organisation's technology platform so it is aligned, and continues to be aligned, with the company's strategy.

 

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David M Williams

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David has been computing since 1984 where he instantly gravitated to the family Commodore 64. He completed a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from 1990 to 1992, commencing full-time employment as a systems analyst at the end of that year. Within two years, he returned to his alma mater, the University of Newcastle, as a UNIX systems manager. This was a crucial time for UNIX at the University with the advent of the World-Wide-Web and the decline of VMS. David moved on to a brief stint in consulting, before returning to the University as IT Manager in 1998. In 2001, he joined an international software company as Asia-Pacific troubleshooter, specialising in AIX, HP/UX, Solaris and database systems. Settling down in Newcastle, David then found niche roles delivering hard-core tech to the recruitment industry and presently is the Chief Information Officer for a national resources company where he particularly specialises in mergers and acquisitions and enterprise applications.

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