ICT is actually still a relatively young profession. Over the past few decades, many organizations have seen a huge accumulation of digital business processes, making ICT increasingly important. Not only in terms of costs, but also in terms of complexity. ICT is essential for improving the services you provide to your customers or clients, but at the same time, that same ICT has become a bottleneck and threatens to hinder progress.
Your IT manager informs you that adding new features is difficult and that it takes a lot of time and money to implement them. Your IT suppliers are not really cooperating either. Employee satisfaction has actually been too low for years and innovation is in danger of coming to a standstill.
These are important indications that you have ended up in a:
vicious circle of lack of control
You may have already taken steps to tackle the complexity and spaghetti that has developed in your IT architecture. It is quite likely that you have already had one or more reports drawn up by external consultants who have tried to clarify what needs to be done to reduce the complexity. This resulted in a task that was so daunting that you may have decided not to pursue it. The report ended up on the shelf and nothing happened. Your people didn't know where to start, and the enormous costs and time involved in such a project were daunting. All in all, you may have lost control of this escalating problem.
Many organizations struggle with the fact that they have little or no control over complex IT services. Control is a word that is easily used, but many organizations have only limited control. The image shows how, according to TransitieProfs, this problem arose and why it is so difficult to escape it.
The circle shows that most IT departments are actually too busy resolving incidents, leaving little time for implementing structural improvements.
The vicious circle process can best be described as follows:
Due to a dependence on consultants and suppliers, incorrect contractual agreements are made, the organization is too busy dealing with incidents and is unable to focus on functional management. The strategic positioning of (digital) services has thus become the victim, and innovation has come to a standstill. Breaking this cycle is possible, but it requires a different attitude from your IT staff and your suppliers.
Let's take a look at some important insights:
Put your suppliers to work!
To ensure that your employees have more time to focus on innovation, incident handling should be shifted to your suppliers. That may sound rude, but many IT companies are increasingly open to this idea. This is partly because they are often working on a cloud strategy and understand that their role in their relationship with you is changing. So there are plenty of opportunities to review those agreements, which is very important in order to give your people free rein. If a new contract or tender is coming up soon, that's perfect timing. This is an opportunity to capitalize on new agreements.
Listen carefully to your users
There are two reasons why it is important to listen carefully to your users. First of all, they can help answer the question: 'Where should we start?'. Your users can tell you which part of the IT landscape has the biggest problems, and therefore where it is best to start. Another important reason is that by taking your users seriously, you immediately start building support. In the process that follows to take control, a change in working methods is essential. Because change is always complicated, support among your people is very important. TransitieProfs can help you with this. We conduct interviews with a representative number of users and come up with solutions that they recognize. In the process that follows, we pay close attention to resistance.
Revamp your IT landscape
Once your users have identified the problem areas, it becomes easier to make choices. Many organizations have hundreds of applications running, which has made tackling this unpredictable landscape a challenge. It is therefore very important to 'think big but start small'. TransitieProfs helps you identify which applications are business-critical and which ones could be phased out. Next, one of the applications or services is selected for optimization. This allows your organization to start familiarizing itself with the new working method. This proof of concept serves as a springboard to the next phase, in which successes will be replicated.
Opt for an organization-wide approach
Although control is a valuable asset and will also save costs, it is important to realize that innovation was your main motivation for embarking on this operation in the first place. Gaining control is not an IT party and must be embraced widely. Innovation must be organized by learning to deal with resistance, working on a digital strategy, and continuing to show administrative commitment. Keep making it clear to your departments which path you have taken and why this path is so important. It is not cost-cutting that is the driving force, but an improvement in job satisfaction and opportunities for innovation. During the process, decisions will have to be made that concern you as CIO, director, or administrator. Don't let anything stop you from taking a seat on the steering committee and continue to explain the new path to your employees!
Author: Martijn Stekelenburg
