Sep 23, 2010 -- 1:24PM, Lucy Swedberg wrote:

Hi Tom,

Would you say that this new "IT as a business partner" outlook has had an impact on the motivation and morale of your IT team? Do you find that your IT folks are more charged up about the work they're doing?

Thanks.

Hi Lucy--the simple answer is "yes", I think people like being listened to and being respected.  But this is a two-edged sword--we have also raised expectations and the business is looking for guidance and for us to speak with authority.  My team is compared toe the best consultants that we have had on projects and that is a high standard.  Sometimes setting the expectations high can be an issue.  But that is the right thing to do and most people react well.  The greater risk/problem is that sometimes the penulum swings so far in the new direction that the business expects us to have all the answers, including to their business process problems.  That is a bit too high an expectation and we have to get the business to "own" their process at times.

Since IT’s role is now more of a strategic nature, how did you cultivate the skill sets necessary to evolve toward the new strategic challenges? Were these skills already present in your team or is this an ongoing transformation?

Thanks!

Sep 23, 2010 -- 1:36PM, Kristin Bent wrote:

Hi Tom,

How did you get stakeholder buy-in to make your IT team more strategic and outsource the day-to-day support? Any tips for obtaining this buy-in?

Thanks!

Hello Kristin,

To get buy-in for our strategy to focus the in-house apps team on projects was not as hard as you might think--and we did NOT have to lay off a bunch of people to make room for the 3rd party support team.  But our situation may be a little unusual or at least the attitude of the organization may be unusual.  Basically, senior mgmt was on board because we were proposing a CHEAPER way to expand our capacity to deliver project work.  Up until the point when we changed our strategy, the IT apps team was just not able to consistently deliver on its commitments.  The team was constantly being pulled away to do support.  Projects suffered delays or sometimes could not even start.  The strategy was to liberate our “free” (internal) resources---"free" because these were already in our budget--and engage relatively inexpensive support resources.  The alternative of engaging consultants to expand our project capacity we felt would be much more expensive than the buying the support capability.

Hi Tom, Sounds like your IT transformation project was a huge success! My question is this: Throughout the process (especially in the beginning), were there any communication challenges between business users and IT developers? And if so, how did you manage/overcome them? Thanks!

Sep 23, 2010 -- 1:41PM, Kristine Erickson wrote:

 I've seen organizations talk of "IT transformation" but struggle with execution. You noted a couple of things that are making this a success - training, close relationships with support, and, I assume, top-down support in the business.

From your consulting and current work,  do you see any big "first steps" that IT can take to overcome resistance to changing the role of the IT team?  

One other "step" is focusing on business benefit as you work with the business and asking them to really be clear about how the project or ehhancement will help them.  If they cannot articulate that, then something is wrong.  If they can, document it and use that later to demonstrate to senior mgmt that the IT team is really doing what the business needs.  The support will come even from the skeptics if they see that often enough...