Charles A. Araujo, Jr.

The Problem with IT

Eric Chabrow of CIO Insight recently posted an entry on his blog Parallax View (IBM to CIOs: Who Needs You?) about a comment made by an IBM Vice President.  In it, the VP admitted that he was beginning to bypass CIOs and sell directly to business users.  This shouldn't come as a shock to many people.  We have increasingly seen major vendors take this tack over the last few years. 

What I found most interesting was the comments (there were only 3) that seemed somewhat indignant.  One said something about buying $1.3MM in hardware and that IBM better beware because users can't tell the difference between hardware manufacturers.  But that's the whole point!  The IBM VP isn't selling "hardware" - he is selling a business solution that fills an unmet business requirement.  And until CIOs understand this, vendors will HAVE TO continue selling directly to the business.

This relates to what I've begun working on with the Market Driven IT concept (www.MarketDrivenIT.com).  The basic challenge is that IT needs to stop acting like a "department" and start truly acting as a business.  IBM and every other vendor would much prefer to be able to sell to the IT organization, but only if IT truly understands the customer better than anyone else and can identify and position solutions that will propel the business forward.  But when IT organizations spend all of their cycles focused on technical elements, the business focus is lost and vendors have no choice. 

To me, the issue is not that vendors are going directy to the business - the issue is that IT isn't.  When is the last time someone in IT made a "sales call"?  Actually came to the business proactively with a solution to a business problem?  This happens in the best run organizations, but for most, IT is a reactive organization that waits for the business to come to them with a "project" and then focuses on the technical requirements needed to implement it.  In this environment, let me ask you - if you were IBM (or any other vendor who had a business focused solution), where would you sell?

Secrets of ITIL Success

I'm not typically a big fan of Pink Elephant, but SearchCIO recently posted excerpts from Graham Price's (of Pink) presentation at Pink's annual conference.  In it, he addressed the 10 biggest mistakes IT organizations make during an ITIL implementation - and what to do about it.  As I read it, I felt that it succinctly addressed the very common pitfalls that I have seen with ITIL projects.  There are other issues, to be sure, but what I particularly liked about his presentation was that he focused on the management and planning aspects of an ITIL adoption effort that are often overlooked or willfully skipped.

It's somewhat ironic that ITIL is all about process and management and yet when people embark on an adoption project, they skip over those very elements of the adoption process itself.  As in any project, an ITIL adoption effort is often won or lost at the beginning.  If you're about to start an ITIL adoption program (or restart one), this quick read will be well worth your time, provided that you take its lessons to heart.  Read the article here.

I'm curious to know what others think about this list.  Did he nail it?  What other mistakes would you have included?

Emerging Trends in IT

I recently wrote part one of a three part series on emerging trends in IT and posted it on the CastlePointe website.   As IT organizations come under inceased pressure, they are increasingly focusing their energies and resources in three key areas: Data Optimization, Data Center Optimization and Application Optimization.  In this series, I will be reviewing and exploring each of these key focus areas.  If you get a chance, check it out.  I'd love to know what you think.