The IT Asset Allocation Model
Anyone working for IT long enough knows that in certain parts of the organization, such as Help Desk, being a great order taker can deliver significant benefits. The ROI is smaller compared to redesigning the overall IT architecture or business processes, but service and support remain essential. On the other hand, IT must work as a partner to the business as well, for the simple reason that the business probably is driving the bulk of what you do today.
I believe an IT department should evolve the way a retirement portfolio does. You must have the essential investments, such as Help Desk, as well as risker strategic investments that can produce outsize returns. If you have too much investment in conservative areas such as support, however, you’re not taking on enough risk to stay ahead of change. If you’re too over-invested in taking risks and redefining your business model with IT, however, you may also be overlooking the basics that make IT an appreciated and visible investment.
An IT executive should be evolving constantly and moving into new categories whenever that makes sense. When I took on my role within IT, our department was severely struggling with adding business value. In fact we were slowing business down. My first move was to go to Sales, the political powerhouse at this time, because I knew if I could win them over, I would evolve the perception of my skills and survive to fight the next round. If I had gone and addressed Finance’s problem, Sales would have said, “This guy isn’t getting anything done. We’re losing market share.”
An IT leader always should think strategically. To return to the Help Desk example, yes, you must provide basic help desk services, and Help Desk is the most visible part of IT to most employees, but you don’t want to be an order-taker in any areas where you might empower users to do self-service. Finding those efficiencies for IT is just part of being a good corporate citizen. It’s also a way to “balance” your IT portfolios. You never want to spread your time and strategic energy equally across every task. Invest your time in value creation. After all, this is why businesses exist.
In my career experience, one area where you should never expect IT perception to evolve much is in expense, because IT always will be seen as too expensive. In part that’s because saying “IT is too expensive” really means, “I had six projects I wanted to get done with you and I only have funding for five.” Even if you do the impossible and nail those six projects for the business, the next year that same business contact will have seven projects they want to do with you but funding for only six. This does not mean you ignore costs. On the contrary technology is becoming more cost effective, and you need to evolve your model to take advantage of the evolution in technology. Evolving as an executive means being able to manage that perception while always looking for ways to deliver and prove value, not only with your business leaders but with your CFO and other executive leaders as well.
Sven Gerjets is Senior Vice President of Information Technology at DIRECTV and is responsible for delivering the full lifecycle of IT business value at DIRECTV starting with business solution definition through delivery into production. Gerjets leads a 1,000+ person globally distributed IT organization responsible for development, test, project management and business analysis.
