CIO OPINION
“
CIOS NEED TO
LEAD THEIR
IT TEAMS TO
ROOT OUT THEIR
OWN MANUAL,
REPEATABLE
PROCESSES.
new normal and we shouldn’t expect that to
change significantly – everyone across the
entire business has to do more with less.
However, the business needs IT to support
new initiatives in order to grow. Therein
lies the rub; with limited people and time,
we can’t respond because we’re too busy
keeping the lights on.
It’s time we dramatically shift the 80:20 ratio;
until we do so, IT will be seen as just another
cost centre. CIOs need to lead their IT teams
to root out their own manual, repeatable
processes. All the routine, menial stuff that
takes up valuable IT resources should be
automated so that staff can tackle productive
work that requires creativity and imagination
and moves the business forward.
If a company is just starting to automate
IT processes, it’s typical to start with the
simplest tasks like password resets and
onboarding new hires. This makes sense;
on average 25% of the helpdesk calls are
password related. Resetting employees’
forgotten passwords is an easy problem for
the helpdesk to fix, but it still takes time.
Automate it.
Automating the simple tasks will deliver
incremental improvements but, for
maximum impact, tackle some of the
messier stuff first. Automating complex,
multi-step, highly manual activities that
touch multiple people can more quickly
deliver the agility needed.
Routine changes, diagnostics, performance
monitoring and incident resolution are a
few places ripe for automation. Increasingly,
50
INTELLIGENTCIO
machines are aware when something isn’t
right. Automation should start with the
creation of work (incidents in the first place).
Why can’t the infrastructure and end-user
machines create the incident verses a
human having to do it? To take this a step
further, why can’t an intelligent machine
resolve the incident once it is received? All
without requiring a human to intervene.
The time we get back by automating
everything that simply ‘makes systems work’
affords IT departments the much-needed
room to be agile and deliver business value.
Make sure your IT people can talk
the talk
Most IT organisations struggle with talking
in a language that speaks to business
leaders. If IT sits down with the head of
sales about a project and the question we
ask is ‘What do you need us to do?’ then
we’ve become an order taker. We need to
talk to stakeholders in their business terms
and outcomes.
An agile IT organisation needs people who
have half their brain in IT and the other half
in sales, marketing, finance or whichever line
of business is sitting across the table. These
IT people work with the business leaders to
define the outcomes they are after.
They seek to understand why something
needs to change, not just how. This skillset
is what separates leading IT organisations
from the rest.
To help IT to start using the same vocabulary,
one of my CIO peers started requiring all IT
staffers to listen to quarterly earnings calls
with analysts. That helped IT to understand
the strategic goals of the business and to ask
some poignant questions.
It didn’t take long for this IT organisation to
start finding ways they could deliver results
that not just align with business priorities but
deliver business results.
What’s truly important will be grounded
in tangible business results; what’s not will
waste valuable IT time and kill agility. It is
critical IT recognise the difference. As IT
staff become fluent in the business language
and asks the right questions, what’s
important will become easier to spot.
Focus on what’s really important
As you free up IT’s time to be creative,
innovative and imaginative, there will be no
shortage of good ideas. CIOs know we can’t
be agile at everything that comes our way.
We also need to consider that there is
a difference between what is important
verses what is urgent. Urgent is putting out
fires, busywork or tasks IT staff tackle first
because they are easier than the project list.
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