The Hub Commentary_

The title caught my attention as I can relay a very similar story and entered the job market the same year as well.  Yikes!  However, I didn’t aspire or become CIO as Diane has done.  The one aspect of the article that I would debate is supporting any device in the organization.  The article describes a business service management approach at Intel in understanding the business and knowing how technology supports and drives the business growth, however, then takes a left turn with the roll your own approach.

Let me explain.  The consumer market without a doubt drives IT and how we as technologists should evaluate technology for business application.  Where I scratch my head and even argue with myself is in supporting every one’s personal device.  If for business purposes Intel did not require specific roles to need a smart device or tablet, then why take on the cost and burden to support it.  Intel didn’t take on the capital expenditure, but the human support cost in the end can exceed the cost of the device and defining a standard device may in the end have been cheaper.

I know that this also goes to the work environment/culture and I do not have visibility to their support costs and it also made employees more accessible to work by their own decision, so that is where I debate with myself and it may come out to be a wash in this case.  I’m using it as an example of the things that should be weighed before signing up to support anything just because the employee makes the capital expenditure.  Like Intel evaluated security, there are very real other concerns to weigh.

Outsourcing and the service providers are more appealing with their subscription models because they define a standard for the commodity and do not deviate.  So while the Intel story sounds appealing, I would not suggest it is for everyone.  This is the exception – not the rule.

Michele

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Diane Bryant never intended to go to college, let alone become a top executive at Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker. She joined the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company back in 1985 and has held several positions over the years, including silicon design engineer and general manager of the server platforms group. About three years ago, she became Intel’s (INTC) chief information officer.  (Read Full Article…)