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March 22, 2004 (Computerworld) -- The CEO of a software company told me recently that the "defensiveness" of IT organizations is one of the most pervasive problems in the industry these days. It undermines their standing within their companies and reduces their influence in decision-making.
He asked me not to attribute the comment to him because "the last thing those people want to hear is some vendor suggesting they've got a bad attitude."
That CEO is not alone in noting that something has gone sour in IT's relationship with both the business side and users. The barely veiled hostility between IT groups and the folks who sit on mahogany row and in the cube clusters has become a common topic of conversation.
There are good reasons for IT workers to be edgy. Those whose jobs haven't been eliminated or sent overseas are working harder with smaller budgets -- and they're getting a lot less respect for the work they do. It's the respect factor that may be the crux of the issue.
Several years ago, I worked in the headquarters of a large newspaper chain. The IT staff had convinced management that physical security for the computer room was crucial, and they had sequestered themselves away in a windowless corner office, barricaded by a reinforced door with a combination lock.
They ventured out of their fortress only to chastise us users about cyberhygiene and to restart applications that had been fouled by stupid-user tricks. We viewed them as eccentric, and they irritated us with their arrogance. But they knew things we didn't, and in truth, they saved our butts more times than we liked to admit.
At one point, upper management began huddling with the in-house geeks and a gaggle of consultants, trying to choose a new "front-end" system -- although we doubted the execs actually knew the difference between a front end and back end.
Management even hired a vice president charged with developing our online operation. It seemed that the geeks were going to rescue our content from legacy media, too.
But it didn't quite work out that way. The vice president lost his job in a round of downsizing. The fortress was dismantled when half the building was leased to another company.
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