The Hub Commentary_

The IT Skeptic has an interesting post regarding service levels, running IT as a business, business service management practices.  I’ll cut to the chase on my views on these topics:  internal IT SLAs are meaningless when after the fact reporting the score, IT is not a business and IT is not a profit center.

Why is IT the only unit within a business that we speak of as IT and business?  Do we say sales and the business, marketing and the business, customer service and business, the list goes on and on.  All of the units are the business and all should practice good business service management practices measuring cost and value against the objectives of the business in prioritizing work and investments.

As a product company in technology, I think we may have a unique view.  We produce a product that needs to meet the requirements of the market and customers, sales, support, consulting, marketing, development, testing, etc. – all departments must contribute to the success of any given product brought to market and each is evaluated for cost and value.

Embracing business service management practices is a step in the right direction in breaking the “and” versus it’s just business.  Monitoring and measuring as services and changing the dialog around to cost and value supporting business objectives will advance your IT organization.

Are you an “and” or just business?

Michele

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“Run IT as a business”. I’ve been guilty of using it in the dim dark past. If providing IT is your business, say you are EDS, then that is a special case where the mantra makes sense. But for most organisations, running IT as an internal business is counter-productive if not downright destructive. In most situations, IT is a team-member not a supplier.  (Read Full Article…)