Managing IT Infrastructure vs. Platforms

I was in an interesting discussion with one of my consulting clients recently.  I was with a group of IT managers responsible for their firm’s shared IT assets.  This is a large, global enterprise that has been on an aggressive journey over the last 5 years to transform business-IT maturity.  By any measure, they have been [...]

Reflections on 2007 - En Route to 2017

It seems like a good time of the year to reflect on significant milestones or events that somehow mark 2007 on the journey to 2017 for IT organizations.  Ten years from now, when students of IT organizational evolution look back on 2007, what might the year be remembered for?  I’ll split this into a couple [...]

The IT Organization c2017 - Part 2

Let’s continue with our speculation about the nature of enterprise IT organizations in 2017.  I’m reminded about a book I read many years ago called When Old Technologies Were New by Carolyn Marvin.  In the early days of electrification, most large companies would have a Vice President, Electrification.  It made me think then would the time [...]

IT Funding and the Level 2 Sticking Point

One of the more intractable sticking points on the journey to Level 3 Business-IT Maturity is in the IT funding model - the ways that IT prices its products and services, and recovers its costs (and, it a profit center, covers its margin).
Life as a consultant is tough.  I’m not complaining, but we have to [...]

The “Level 2″ Sticking Point

I believe that the major inflexion point comes at the middle of Level 2.  The things you have to do to get from Level 1 to Level 2 are quite different from the things you must do to get from Level 2 to Level 3.  The Business-IT Maturity model is a learning curve and the middle [...]