The gap created without a correlation between technology and business strategy could dilute the positive impacts technology can have on your business.
Jeff Gorman | President | Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn
The frequent pace of technology change is a consistent challenge for most companies. Lifecycles of hardware and software are short. The time span between ‘new’ and ‘end of life’ is brief and the increased demands placed on systems make steady investment necessary. Refreshes, upgrades, and patches create a whirlwind of operations requirements which make it tempting to divert focus in two potentially misguided ways.
First, a focus on ‘road maps’ and ‘new features’ can lead to a mindset that starts to elevate the technology over the business purpose the system serves. When technology drives the decision-making process, and things happen because they can rather than because they are needed, a gap can grow between what the system provides and what the real needs are for the business area the system serves. If Information Technology exclusively focuses on systems and does not get integrally involved in understanding the business processes and value streams those systems provide, the company is not maximizing its investment in technology. Companies should not invest in technology just because it is new, impressive, and ground-breaking. They should invest in technology because it improves business processes and adds value. Value can come in the form of things like measurable risk mitigation, process automation, improving efficiency, cost savings, or enhanced revenue generation. If a company is making significant investments in technology without talking about those types of benefits, it could create a growing gap between the perceived value of technology and the potential value of technology.
The second potential pitfall created by the whirlwind of operations requirements is the belief that infrastructure is ‘not a key component’ to a company’s success and therefore the organization can outsource the management of it to another entity with minimal impact on the core business. The frequent analogy here is that infrastructure is like electricity, and we can get infrastructure from an outside entity just like we get power from our local energy provider.
In reality, business technology infrastructure is inherently different than power distribution within a building. The analogy that power delivery happens through an outlet in the wall, just like networking, is a short-sighted view. Network infrastructure, both what is on-premise and what is in the cloud, includes complex topics like capacity planning, resource allocation, and security considerations. Those are similar to needs from an electrical system. More importantly, though, infrastructure done properly includes an ongoing commitment to understanding existing and emerging needs within the business and being able to architect solutions to meet those business-specific needs. Doing infrastructure well requires technical experts who understand the technology and are also familiar with what the business needs the technology to accomplish. Those needs vary far greater than simplifying to an analogy that the power company knows you need electricity at the plug. Designing, maintaining, and operating an efficient enterprise infrastructure requires business-specific knowledge; it is imperative that the business need and the technical aspects are integrated. This unity creates a common purpose among technologists and increases the likelihood of maximizing the business efficiency of the technology solutions.
Neither of these pitfalls happens all the time; there are cases where companies find balance in being driven to ‘have the latest’ and still map that to business needs, and there are cases where companies successfully figure out components to outsource and still manage to find ways to bridge the gap between ‘ownership of technology’ and ‘ongoing strategic use of technology.’ Both pitfalls, though, are common enough to merit consideration when dealing with the whirlwind of ongoing operations required in a field with such constant change. The pace of change is fast, and if you have a technology strategy that exists without direct correlation to a business strategy, you are likely to find the gap you are creating is diluting the positive impacts technology can have on your business.
