IT's role is changing- with the rise of "shadow IT" and BYOD people keep saying the "CIO is dead".
Is the CIO dead? I don't think so- they'll just be doing different things.
What? You'll have to view the deck!
90. “There is, perhaps, a call to
action here… otherwise
smart workers will use the
initiative you presumably
pay them for to work
around the limitations.” -
Dale Vile
Hi My name’s Justin Pirie
I’m the Cloud Strategist here at Mimecast but I’m best known as an Analyst Blogger in the SaaS and Cloud space.
Archive
Continutity
Security
And soon Productivity and IB
Hi My name’s Justin Pirie
I’m the Cloud Strategist here at Mimecast but I’m best known as an Analyst Blogger in the SaaS and Cloud space.
From the Mimecast Cloud Adoption Survey http://www.mimecast.com/events-press/press-releases/article/view/cloud-computing-delivering-on-its-promise-but-doubts-still-hold-back-adoption/462/
From the Mimecast Cloud Adoption Survey http://www.mimecast.com/events-press/press-releases/article/view/cloud-computing-delivering-on-its-promise-but-doubts-still-hold-back-adoption/462/
From the Mimecast Cloud Adoption Survey http://www.mimecast.com/events-press/press-releases/article/view/cloud-computing-delivering-on-its-promise-but-doubts-still-hold-back-adoption/462/
From the Mimecast Cloud Adoption Survey http://www.mimecast.com/events-press/press-releases/article/view/cloud-computing-delivering-on-its-promise-but-doubts-still-hold-back-adoption/462/
2010 Gartner Hype Cycle for emerging technologies
2010 Gartner Hype Cycle for emerging technologies
At the beginning of my journey I’m almost ashamed to say my attraction to Cloud was
About money. The shift from
Capital Expenditure, where the buyer took all the risk as to whether the software would work and fund the purchase, to
Operational Expenditure, where you paid for what you used, and if it didn’t work you stopped paying- or sometimes didn’t even pay at all.
But that only the first and probably the least important benefit of cloud- the real benefits are hidden
About money. The shift from
At a time of reinvention- it is really important to ask what IT is for?
But it’s a question I didn’t ask myself seriously enough until recently- sounds academic though doesn’t it?
It is a bit- but hopefully it’ll help you understand what we’re here for, just like it helped me. What does production function mean?
It’s the combination of all the inputs
Which create the outputs.
The problem is, that in IT, they’re hidden. Hard to find.
Let me contextualise it for you- What do Sales do?
They turn prospects into orders.
What does the supply chain do?
They turn orders into invoices.
What does finance do?
The turn invoices into cash.
So what does IT do?
What do we do for the business?
Or more specifically- what is the production function of IT???
http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/2010/06/27/what-is-the-production-function-of-it/
What is the Production Function of IT?
by Mark McDonald | June 27, 2010 | 1 Comment
Understanding IT’s role in the enterprise is complex and incomplete. IT is the subject of great debate as some see it as the source of competitive advantage and others see it as an enabling function. CIOs and IT professionals themselves have a tough time answering the question about IT’s role.
Why? because I believe we are asking the question in the wrong way.
We need to ask,
“What is the production function of IT?”
Production function, sounds kind of academic right, but its simply the output you get for all the combination of inputs. Its what you take and what you make.
Every part of your enterprise has a production function. So, when you ask different parts of the enterprise what they take and make you get answers like:
SALES
TOP LINE REVENUE: We take prospects and turn them into orders
SUPPLY CHAIN
PROFIT: We take orders and turn them into invoices
FINANCE
CASH: We take invoices and turn them into cash
IT
?????? Silence ??????
I know its silence because I have asked the question to dozens of IT leadership teams. They look at each other and cannot put IT’s contribution in a simple answer. It is not because IT is more complex than these other functions. No its more that IT professionals have thought of themselves as something apart for the enterprise, something special and therefore not falling under the same rules.
There are two production functions for IT that can be summarized in two words SPEED and SCALE.
SPEED: We take strategy plans and turn them into operational performance
IT’s production function is to deliver speed of execution against the company’s strategy and plans. Strategy execution involves change and change requires IT participation. The faster IT is able to execute its processes, deliver results and accelerate strategy execution the better.
IT drives speed when it concentrates on reducing its own internal cycle times for providing IT services, solution development and governance. Concentrating internal operations on speed of execution makes IT more responsive and innovative. IT organizations operating at speed give their business a steady stream of value that actually expands ITs role and enterprise flexibility.
Without speed, IT is a bottleneck to strategic execution and operational performance. It is the reason we cannot go faster. This is the reason why change is expensive. The reason why I have to control IT costs, because if they cannot go fast enough for me, then I had better make sure that they do not cost too much.
SCALE: We take operations and increase their capacity and reduce their average cost
IT’s other production function is to create scale of operation across the enterprise. Scale in this sense is the ability to IT to aggregate activities and deliver greater capacity at a lower average cost. IT creates scale through its infrastructure and operations activities that make the modern enterprise possible. IT is one of two scale functions in the enterprise. The supply chain is the other scale function.
IT drives scale through the infrastructure by constantly aggregating operations, virtualization and active contract management to gain the benefits of being bigger. Without this scale, growing transaction volumes and the cost of operating disparate infrastructures would literally consume the company’s profit.
Without scale, operations drown in a combination of complexity, duplicate cost and faltering service levels. You see this with high growth companies that are heroes that suddenly fail – because they do not have scale.
***
What is IT’s production function? To deliver speed and scale to the enterprise.
Speed and scale can seem as two different things, and that can be part of the reason why they are difficult for CIOs and IT leaders to articulate. Most go “ah ha” when they think about their role in speed and scale.
But, when you boil it down, we know why an enterprise has a sales function, a supply chain, a finance function, etc. We had thought that IT existed to manage the technologies that these functions depend on.
That is true in terms of the activities IT provides, but ‘to what end’
Speed of execution and
Scale of operation.
IT’s production value number 1 is Speed.
Turning organisational strategy into execution
As Fast as possible- to deliver results to the business
And to do that IT has to be as responsive as possible
Because without speed IT is a bottleneck to operational performance.
Take operations
increase their capacity and reduce their average cost to again deliver operational performance.
IT should equal agility. Yet when we’re purchasing systems, rarely does agility factor heavily enough.
Glass half full or half empty?
You’ve got to understand the cloudonomics
Because that defines when you should use Private Cloud- assuming no security risk
For the first time in history, consumers have access to better IT at home than at work
I want to use the device I want to
Smartphones
Tablets
Laptops
PC
Social Media
240 Additional hours worked per year by the average mobile worker- iPass
91% of mobile workers will check their smartphone during downtime
87% of mobile workers will use their tablets for work – only 41% of tablets are corp. provided
87% of mobile workers will use their tablets for work – only 41% of tablets are corp. provided
The people who actually BYOD are most likely to be your most innovative workers
There is, perhaps, a call to action here for… otherwise smart workers will use the initiative you presumably pay them for to work around the limitations.
Enable your HERO’s
The people who actually BYOD are most likely to be your most innovative workers
power laptop users make 44% more money, use more collaboration apps, and carry an average of three devices wherever they go."
Also more likely to communte longer distances and be part of a distributed team
HERO’s want tech that think makes them more efficient
Not holds them back
And represents their personal brand
BIN?
Benefits
Staffing- Retention, Happiness, Hiring
More efficient, More productive, More responsive, More Agile
How do I enable employees to be productive
Glass half full or half empty?
Evolve to the Cloud data security paradigm- secure the data, not the device
IT’s role is emerging as the data custodian
To protect and empower the enterprise
If we want the benefits of BYOD we need to move away from control over the device to liberating the data
Making data work for you and your people
Don’t let your data go to die in an archive
We used to make email easy, Starting this year, we’ll be making email more useful, productive
Add value to the business- don’t be looking over your shoulder
All good security decisions are done with GRC. Evaluate the risk posed by the data.
The cultural shift in that’s happening in IT is palpable- BYOD is driving- visible manifestation and Cloud
It’s about losing the shackles
Moving from managing infrastructure to manging data and the glue
Move away from a fear of problems arising
Focus on adding business value
Increasing productivity
We can’t pretend its an easy decision- leap of trust
Trusting so many of these things to a cloud vendor
So you can concentrate on the important things
A leap of faith?
It’s encumbant on us- CSA- ISO27001 leap of faith
Non trivial decision
Full cold crisp lager
Mean professional services
Hi My name’s Justin Pirie
I’m the Cloud Strategist here at Mimecast but I’m best known as an Analyst Blogger in the SaaS and Cloud space.