The IT function in government organizations is at a crossroads. According to a recent study, 18 per cent of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) said that they expected their jobs to be eliminated in the next five years. The very success of technology is threatening to undermine the traditional position of IT departments. As government technology enters the organizational mainstream, public sector IT professionals need to redefine their roles within the organization – or face their inevitable fate. Today less than 50 per cent of the budgets for IT projects are held by IT executives. This represents a major shift from a decade ago when IT controlled the vast majority of the technology budget.
The very user-friendliness of technology has empowered many users to believe that they are capable of making technology decisions and purchases on their own, without recourse to the IT department. What we are seeing is a slow erosion of the responsibilities of IT departments in general, with increasing emphasis on their role as corporate police: ensuring compatibility with corporate guidelines, and maintaining the security and availability of systems.
The ROI challenge is another element influencing the future of government technology. IT is regarded as a cost centre. In many organizations where IT is still a cost centre and no accountability was put in place to hold the users and business units responsible and accountable for their technology choices, IT represents a bottomless pit of ongoing spending.
A new role
To realign the IT function with the core of the business it serves, government IT executives must change their view of who they are and what they do in the organization. The shift must start by changing the perception of IT as managers of tools and infrastructure (which are outsourceable and are not a core competency of most businesses) to producers of information.
This changes the perception of IT from one of ‘the people responsible for plumbing’ to one of ‘the people who ensure product usage and user satisfaction’. Technology executives must view their role through a prism, looking at their product with a new perspective: information and user acceptance.
They must become a combination of product sellers, educators, coaches and mentors of the use of their products, and not just be the glorified caretakers of their servers, security, and applications. As such their focus should shift from maintaining networks to ensuring use and satisfaction. They must take a complete ownership approach of their products and assure full usage and satisfaction of their users.
When considered and managed as a product, the role of IT and how it is used in the organization changes. It is a shift from perceiving value from the perspective of system servers and tools to defining it from the perspective of user proficiency and use. What is the most used piece of information? Who are the top users of information? How do they consume information? These are some of the questions that must appear on the radar screen of all IT executives.
Technology must engage in understanding how users consume their products and what makes them relevant. Like true product managers, they must ensure that the product is relevant and that the users are satisfied with it.
Information as a product, holds the future for the region’s public sector IT professionals. By shifting their focus to how technology is used, rather than how it is deployed, they will maximise the impact of government technology programmes, and maximise their own contribution to the organization. It is only by having this positive impact that government IT professionals will reestablish their importance and relevance as part of the decision-making mainstream business agenda of their government agencies.
Autor: Lior Arussy
Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 29.03.2005
