IT Struggles To Become More Agile

Computerworld - SAN DIEGO -- Many companies are eager to make their IT departments more agile so they can respond faster to changing business demands. But getting there is likely to be a long, arduous process, said about a dozen attendees at Meta Group Inc.'s Metamorphosis conference here last week.
"It's a lot easier to identify the 'what' than it is the 'how,' " said Salim Nuraney, director of architecture at Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., a Toronto-based government agency that runs lottery and casino operations for the province of Ontario.
Meta analysts preached about the need for more IT adaptability and the complexity of achieving it. Nuraney and other conference attendees generally agreed with the consulting firm's contention that IT managers have to do a better job of training their staffs to react to changing business requirements, make their technology cost structures more variable and meld the systems that support individual business units into more cohesive enterprise architectures.
End-User Resistance
Several IT managers at the conference cited resistance by end users to organizational and business process changes as a key impediment. "The last thing end users want to hear is another great idea that came from IT," said Lisa Yeo, CIO for the Multnomah County government in Portland, Ore.
Yeo noted that some county agencies still want to maintain separate systems and IT architectures, despite the efficiencies and cost savings that could be achieved by managing systems under a single architecture. "We're trying to show them how sharing common systems and platforms would help us countywide," she said.
In addition, some attendees said it's hard to ignore demands from revenue-generating business units for specific systems or applications, even if the technology doesn't fit within a wider IT strategy.
Meanwhile, according to a Meta Group survey of 300-plus IT and business managers that's due to be released next month, the biggest barriers cited by the respondents were a lack of staff support and the need to make too many changes to internal business processes.
It can also be tough to align IT with business goals if business unit managers aren't willing to devote enough attention to projects aimed at serving their needs. "Business users still don't want to give up their time and get engaged in projects," said Alex Sinclair, director of client services at the Ottawa-based Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada's equivalent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
An applications manager at a large Midwestern manufacturer, who requested anonymity, said he thinks his company's IT department already does a good