Following is a curated list of resources that reflect current thinking on a topic of interest to IT leaders. You can assist this effort by contributing insight from your own real-world experiences, and are invited to suggest changes or additions here.
Current Thinking Includes:
Much of the recent discussion around running IT “as a business” has focused on the meaning of the term, with some confusion. Does it refer to managing the IT function as a separate business unit with “customers”, internal charge-backs and the rest, or is it an admission that IT has historically not been run in business-savvy terms in many organizations? In this second definition “as a business” might be code for the opportunities that exist to improve general accountability, business-iT alignment, transparency of costs etc.. capabilities that would be expected in other departments run by professional staff. As to solutions, there appears to be general consensus that a successful ITIL adoption can go a long way towards leading the IT function in a more professional, business-like manner.
CIO.com: Leading IT as a Business
What’s so bad about being a cost center? Nothing really… if your business isn’t too worried about profitability. Assuming it is, however, the problem with being a cost center is that you are mostly going to be valued by productivity of your people and assets without a clear link to value. Each year’s budget conversation will then focus on how to simply squeeze more out of IT. When every last dime has been squeezed out, we can finally outsource IT, because it’s not a critical capability, right?
CIO.com: IT Is A Business Unit Too
I know a lot of IT strategists and consultants push the idea that IT should be an integral part of the business and shouldn’t be thought of as an independent organization. And that may be what it should be, but it’s not what it is today. Today’s IT is by and large a separate organization even when it is distributed across multiple business units.
CIO Dashboard: Run IT Like a Business, Not As a Business
The primary goal in “running IT LIKE a business” is to improve the business-IT communication (I hate that “business-IT” thing, but we have to deal with it for now…) and reduce the translations from business need to value delivered.