Putting IT in the driving seat for business success

Changes in recent years mean that IT directors are more frequently invited to share their opinion on business strategy, after years of sitting in the back seat.

Having successfully cleared the first hurdle, the second – taking the driving seat to implement changes in relation to the business strategy – is proving far more difficult.

The IT department is still regarded as a fixer, rather than a strategic business unit aimed at driving growth. As long as IT is perceived as a utility, as opposed to a method of driving business strategy, IT directors will struggle to influence the direction of the business.

However, as businesses become more reliant on technology, or are even created by technology, IT will continue to be a key driver. How then, can IT directors get out of their pigeonholes and make their voices heard?

Firstly, the IT department needs to establish some credibility for the systems that it runs and delivers, which often provide more value than the business realises. Once this credibility is established, the project management credentials of IT can be promoted, and the IT department can volunteer to manage projects which don't necessarily have high systems content.

By definition, projects are generally the way that organisations implement and manage change, so this is a straightforward way of getting the IT department more involved with business strategy.

Creating a project definition document and getting it agreed is a good way to influence the content of a particular project. From there, it's not a massive leap to proposing projects, whether these are for the growth or rationalisation of an existing business, the creation of a new one, or whatever strategy is being contemplated. 

This is an effective way for IT directors to show that their departments do not work only on an ad hoc, reactive basis, but rather that they are proactively working towards long-term business goals alongside the rest of the organisation. 

It’s time for IT students to get down to business

We have the most techie generation of kids ever, with many youngsters knowing how to type, plug or print before they can properly walk. Yet the numbers of students opting to study IT at school is continuing to drop.

What is even more worrying is that the dwindling number of students who actually do go on to study IT at university count for one of the highest unemployment rates across all degree subjects in 2007. Yet there are jobs out there needing to be filled.

So if there is so much panic of a skills crisis across the IT industry, why is it those who do leave university with a qualification in IT, often don’t go into a job in IT, or have no job at all?

If we take a look at the popular university subjects it is clear to see that many students now chose non-technology subjects such as business studies. Possibly they are not sure which career path they will choose when they leave university - after all, who knows what will be in demand in four years time - and they are sensibly looking for a good all-round degree.

Of course, although students may not be aware of this yet, employers know that you are likely to get further in most industries if you are strong in communication, teamwork, and attention to detail. The specifics of a degree subject, such as IT, shouldn’t detract from these, which are character attributes as much as skills, but can be considerably enhanced with education.

A non-technical degree can be just as valuable as an IT, mathematics or science one, if it teaches graduates self-discipline, team working and cognitive skills. A musician, for instance, has already proved that they can read and write code, work in a team, and will have manual dexterity which will hold them in very good stead in IT. With blurred boundaries between technical and non-technical roles, the softer skills are becoming necessary much earlier in IT careers.

It is excellent to see some response from the government with the new IT management for business (ITMB) degree, which is on offer at 13 universities throughout the UK.

Most shortcomings in new recruits are not technical in nature and this degree is designed, I think, to jump-start students into an IT/business environment, critical now because so many of the traditional career development routes are blocked by outsourcing. The syllabus will allow pupils to develop a sound knowledge of the essential elements of business IT, while acquiring practical and problem solving skills. Many courses will also incorporate a year’s business placement.

Although this degree has only been running for just over a year, it would be interesting to see what results it has begun to yield. Could it be the answer to the skills crisis that  has been looming over us? We’ll probably start to see the answer to this when the universities start phoning round for placements in 2009.  If it’s going to be a success, the undergraduates should go like hotcakes.

Stemming the tidal effects of offshoring

We’ve been feeling the ripple effects of offshoring for some time.  But now we must prepare ourselves for the tidal waves that will hit our shores in the near future.  Offshoring has already eroded the number of entry-level IT positions leading to a divide in the UK tech industry.  Now it’s time to consider the other possible effects and plan for our future. 

The number of IT support roles, most at risk from the first wave of offshoring, has fallen, while higher-paid IT roles such as consultancy and management are now taking up a larger proportion of IT jobs in the UK.  A global division in labour in IT is upon us, with the UK specialising in project management and consultancy and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) sharpening up their technical and application implementation expertise.

This may work for us now.  But we are storing up problems for the future by offshoring so much of our IT work, as tomorrow’s IT managers aren’t being employed in lower-level jobs. These jobs no longer exist here. At the same time countries like India are trying to move up the IT value chain, offering not just IT systems implementation but also related business consultancy, so they are already starting to move in on one of our remaining strongholds.

The implications of both these trends are going to be phenomenal for the UK technology industry and we need to carefully consider our strategy moving forward.  We must think about whether we stem the flow of technical jobs moving to India, and if so how, while building and securing our ongoing competitiveness in the associated high-value areas.

We have realised this and are deliberately keeping some more junior roles here, in order to be able to develop our future IT skill base. Also a hopeful sign - I was speaking with a major Indian outsourcer and they told me that they are trying to recruit and train some UK staff , recognising that for some customers and roles they just have to have UK staff who are based in the UK.

The time is now for the UK tech industry to formulate a forward-thinking strategy which plays to its remaining strengths (project management, business consultancy skills, and innovation) and allows us to update and renew our in-depth and focused expertise. 

If we don’t, it is inevitable that offshoring will mature, gain an unshakeable position in these areas too, and our IT industry will run inexorably down the plughole of globalisation. 

Do WEEE know enough?

After a slight stall, the WEEE directive  finally come into play earlier this year. All electronic equipment, including computers, printers, scanners, telephones and anything else which used to have an electrical pulse, must be disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner.

With so many staff now adopting remote and flexible working practices, there is a demand for the newest technology to enable staff to work as productively as possible. Swapping large desktop computers for small portable laptops is an inevitable part of this transition, but also produces vast amounts of electrical waste.

A current issue is that very few IT professionals fully understand WEEE, the cost of disposal and where they can dispose of their old equipment. There are worries that WEEE will bring extra costs and inconveniences to the IT manager, as well as security issues around the disposal of hard drives and so on.

But there are actually several options available for companies. IT manufacturers will now willingly take back old equipment (often via a recycling service provider) for a very small charge, and there are numerous contractors who will move your goods on for very little money.

The finances behind WEEE are not widely understood; manufacturers in each sector have to pay for recycling of household WEEE and business WEEE, based on their annual turnover in the various categories and sectors. Most of this currently is to recycle and dispose of ‘historic waste’.  Manufacturers have the option to recoup the fee from sales in the form of a (VAT liable) ‘Visible Fee’ to retailers and ultimately consumers on non-business user sales, but practically, few have introduced this.

In terms of security, most companies would probably choose to wipe the hard drives themselves, but nearly all disposal companies will offer this as a service. And of course recycling the material is not the only option; there are several charities, such as Computer Aid International, who are always looking for old PCs to refurbish cheaply to send onto developing countries.

While the option to recycle has always been available to businesses, what has changed and needs better understanding is how do it in compliance with the new rules. IT managers must work with staff to fully educate them as to the directive, to ensure that all electronic waste is disposed of in a responsible manner, and that all recycling service providers are accredited AATFs - Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities.

Just as businesses have taken on board their environmentally-friendly initiatives, such as encouraging flexible benefits, reducing power consumption and printing less, it is now time for them to take responsibility for the large amounts of electronic waste they produce.

Poor change and project management skills are hindering business transformation

With business and IT still speaking two different languages it looks like the barriers between the two aren’t going to come down unless someone takes the first step and learns to bridge the gap. 

IT’s lack of business and communication skills is stalling business change projects, according to a CIO Connect survey, which found that 64 per cent of IT managers had to change the people in charge of projects to ensure success.

But I think the problem is not just about simple ‘lack of skills’. We all tend to retreat back to our comfort zones and clearly defined responsibilities in times of stress - and what project isn’t a source of that?

For IT people, the comfort zone is around methodologies, the technicalities of set-up, the coding, the flowcharts of predicted business flows and transactions. For business people, it’s the interaction with customers, with suppliers, with regulators and with reporting systems, with what they want IT to do for them. 

So in whose comfort zone is change management, conflict resolution, the painstaking reiteration of changing processes to those affected, the detailed analysis of cause and effect, and the focus on motivation and self interest? What project last allocated a third of its budget to the time and travel needed to construct and institutionalise the new processes which are essential if the system is to be a success?   

If these are no-one’s clear responsibility and comfort zone, then they‘ll be the first to get dropped when deadlines lurch closer and stress levels grow.

To deal with this stress-induced polarization, some CIOs are going down a joint venture route - working with outsourcing specialists to gain access to change management, communication skills and other resources they don’t have in-house.  But for IT to take a lead in business programmes and significantly raise its profile within the business, it needs to provide in-depth change management, commercial, leadership and communication skills, in addition to more traditional IT project management abilities. 

CIOs can start the process by consciously putting IT staff into project roles which will stretch them out of their comfort zone and into these terrifying areas.  And not surprisingly, once they’ve been there for a while and overcome some major setbacks, that becomes their new comfort zone.

Women in IT - It’s hard getting your first break in IT regardless of your sex

Female IT workers believe it’s harder to get their foot in the door than progress up the IT career ladder, according to a recent study by the Training Camp.

Two thirds of the 100 female IT professionals surveyed said it’s more difficult to get into the industry as a woman than to progress and be promoted once they have secured a tech job. 

The survey suggests this is because companies don’t think women are as technically focused as men and that females looking for their first job have to work hard to convince potential employers of their genuine technical potential.

For me, it would be interesting to know how long the female IT workers surveyed here have actually been in the industry because I don’t think this would reflect female IT first-jobbers’ experiences today.  These days at graduate level the industry is incredibly open to recruiting women. 

The truth of the matter is that it is now very tough for women – and men - to break into IT because of the decline in entry-level positions, due to the offshoring and automation of this type of work, which in turn exacerbates the skills shortage situation. 

In terms of the lack of women in IT, this is really down to perception – women are not really aware of what a fulfilling career choice it can be.  With responsibility for a company’s critical business systems, being technically competent and commercially aware go hand in hand.  A career in technology is so much more than just sitting in a corner coding.  I doubt that anyone thinks that a musical composer has a boring job, but he has to do a highly-technical coding job too in order to implement his vision.

Our research of 1,000 UK teenage schoolgirls showed a strong interest in technology with 76 per cent claiming to be ‘very interested’, yet the majority of these (76 per cent) just were not interested in a job in IT.

Somewhere between secondary school and university, girls decide that IT isn’t for them, or perhaps they just don’t consider it.  Either way the UK is missing out on wealth of talent. 

As I’ve said before (and as fellow bloggers like Mark Samuels have agreed) we collectively need to get the message across that IT can be a fulfilling career choice for all; consider running IT apprenticeships and work with outsourcers to create opportunities for IT juniors in the UK or we will all miss out in the long term. 

What can the IT department do to save energy?

My last post dealt with the merits of smarter, flexible working and how businesses need to define policies for remote working and WFH (working from home) before rolling out a scheme company-wide.  The use of IT to improve process efficiency is ingrained into our every thought and decision; we now need to consider environmental factors in the same breath as cost saving. 

Findings from a recent study by Oxford University show that flexible working and WFH is definitely one way to help cut our carbon footprint.  WFH means employees can dodge rush hour and traffic jams, and less commuting means less carbon.  Broadband, web and phone conferencing for homeworking and international virtual meetings are all technologies which can reduce the energy demands of the business.

Aside from flexible working, IT can employ a number of measures which can help the business become more environmentally friendly.

Workforces are growing ever-more dispersed and the physical office is being replaced by a virtual one.  This means that today’s documents are stored on servers rather than in filing cabinets.  Less paper might mean more trees but with computers, printers and servers running all day, technology is a major consumer of energy within businesses. 

IT leaders need to identify IT management or IT controllable practices that can help the business reduce power consumption.  For instance, in a global business it’s not reasonable to shut down all servers overnight, but it’s not unreasonable to set policies that require PCs, monitors and printers to be switched off (not just left on standby) when not in use, that office lights are controlled by timers or movement sensors, and that heat generated by computer equipment is used to offset the office heating bill.

Printing will be with us for a long time yet but we can more actively promote electronic data interchange for most commercial documents, saving on printing, postage and transport costs and their associated energy demands.

To find out more about how IT can go green, Computing is running a four part web seminar programme which introduces a seven-step plan to improving our green credentials. 

 

Flexible working is smarter working

Despite all the bank holidays, this month seems to be all about working – smarter, flexible working. 

With the launch of the new Work Wise UK Quality Mark, flexible working awareness week from 16 to 22 May, and the publication of the British Chamber of Commerce’s Work and Life: How business is striking the right balance report earlier in the month, it looks like businesses up and down the country are finally understanding the necessity of flexible working.

UK plc is finally catching on that adopting smarter working practices can significantly improve productivity and employee relations. 

Great as these benefits are to business, supporting remote working arrangements can place quite a strain on IT departments. IT needs to spend time considering the enabling systems it deploys. 

Initially this just looks like 'put in broadband and some security', but if staff working remotely are to be effective, the remit needs to be somewhat wider. 

Consider arrangements such as:

Telephony:  An IP-enabled switch at head office will allow you to give IP phones to remote staff.  This means that business calls made from remote sites can be at the more advantageous rates you have negotiated with your telecoms provider.  For UK calls, this can be the difference between paying less than 1p per minute and paying 4p or 5p.  For calls out to mobiles or overseas, the savings can be much greater. 

ISP or non-ISP broadband:  Many companies don't even realise that you can get broadband which connects straight back to the office, not via an ISP. The ISP portion of broadband monthly rental is usually over half the cost. Why pay for an ISP service for remote workers when they can use your office ISP connection remotely? A non-ISP approach also covers the extension of internet use and email policies into the remote office.

Printing: Support, printing and consumables costs can be very high if printing (and copying, faxing and scanning) is provided on an ad-hoc basis.

The physical working environment: Companies definitely have some responsibilities for the health and safety of remote workers, so the provision of suitable desks, chairs, and even lighting can't just be ignored.  At the very least, companies need to set out standards and probably provide some cash for setting up home offices.

Security: Security is of course critical and needs to protect not just the office network, but also the remote PC. 

Businesses can’t afford to have an ad hoc approach to flexible working as it leads to employees putting in place their own DIY systems, leaving the network vulnerable and wide open to attack.

A small pilot scheme is a good lead-in to the development of a full remote working solution. The technical enthusiasts in the company will be willing participants and will also evangelise about the benefits of remote working. This will help to inform IT, HR and departmental managers about what parameters, policies and expectations should be set and enable them to roll out a secure flexible working structure on a much wider scale. 

Encouraging tech-savvy kids to pursue IT careers

In light of the industry’s concerns about skills shortages facing the UK, parliamentary lobby group Pitcom and IT sector skills council e-skills UK have launched a competition to discover the most innovative young users of IT amongst the next generation. 

The Made IT Happen competition requires schoolkids aged nine to 11 to enter imaginative projects, which make good use of their school’s IT resources and fits the national curriculum.  A positive initiative like this could help to harness kids’ interest in technology and helps them acquire vital skills for the future. Likewise, sowing these seeds of interest in IT as an attractive career choice amongst the next generation is important to growing and sustaining our industry. Butwe need to kill the myth that you can only have a career in IT if you have a degree in IT.  Graduates with degrees in engineering, music, electronics, and any other degrees which require self-motivation, conceptual ability, logical thinking and mental agility can all make a valuable contribution to the industry.

It’s a common misconception that only IT graduates are interested in IT, and you have to have an IT degree to pursue a career in the industry. As far as I’m concerned, all of this goes out the window as soon as a candidate can demonstrate 12 months' practical experience.  Research shows that young people find technology interesting and exciting and we need to actively encourage and nurture this. 

The public and private sectors must work together to publicise IT as a stimulating and rewarding career to young people if it is to compete with better-marketed career choices such as business and marketing.  Alongside initiatives like Made IT Happen, what’s needed are programmes to give young people useful and relevant experience, many more industrial placements and the funding to help employers to do this cheaply.  We also need to create more opportunities for existing employees to move into IT. 

Most companies have hidden pools of talent, perhaps graduates filling in time in shipping departments or on the factory floor until they find a ‘real’ job.  In Germany, apprenticeships are still common and many people opt for IT careers after a two- or three-year apprenticeship in an IT department.  UK businesses and the government have a moral and competitive responsibility to address the skills shortage. The decline of people working in IT won’t just affect this industry today – it will have serious long-term effects on productivity and competitiveness on UK businesses and the economy.

We should embrace the consumerisation of IT

Over the past few years the growing influence of the generation of ‘digital natives’ has started to impact the way companies use technology. The ‘consumerisation of IT’, as Gartner describes it, is challenging the old established order of centralised development and control.

Whether it’s using instant messaging to communicate with colleagues, suppliers and customers, setting up corporate Wikis to manage internal projects, or trying out advertising concepts on YouTube, the digital natives amongst us are creating a counter-revolution using tools and methods that are often under IT’s radar. It’s not that they’re ever likely to storm the data centre and burn down the servers, but they do have a rebellious tendency to bypass the traditional command and control approach to IT management.

But rather than using baton-wielding IT cops to suppress the insurgency, companies should look to embrace the new ideas and methods born out of Web 2.0.

For example, enhancing productivity through facilitating collaboration has always been a challenging business goal for the IT department. Yet digital natives in their home lives are already part of thriving communities and social networks which are highly efficient channels for sharing and communicating.

Of course it’s not all a one-way street. The proliferation of consumer devices in the workplace and the inherent risk of having unknown assets connecting to the corporate network can create real security breaches. But with the increasing mobilisation of the workforce, the problem of securing moving endpoints needs to be tackled in any case and having a flexible security infrastructure that satisfies both corporate needs and those of gadget junkies will ultimately lead to a better working environment.

So rather than fearing the loss of control which is brought by the consumerisation of IT  we should not be afraid to seek out and  put the best aspects to work for our businesses.