"We were an organization of 'no' and we had to transform to an organization of 'how,'" said Robert Fecteau, CIO of government contractor SAIC, describing his effort to turn the IT department into a partner trusted by other parts of the business.
Fecteau and other CIOs offered their insights during a recent CIO Executive Council (CEC) webcast discussion about IT transformation.
Niel Nickolaisen, CTO of O.C. Tanner, an employee recognition firm, described his IT overhaul in similar terms. Previously, "the culture inside of IT was rather toxic. It was driven by micromanagement. People needed permission to do anything. As you can imagine, the relationship between IT and the rest of the organization wasn't very good. IT had pretty low credibility. We were really order-takers."
How do you turn that around? "We established early on two goals. One was short term: Never apologize for our technology again. In the long term: Deliver technology that amazes everyone that sees it," Nickolaisen says.
For more highlights from the CEC webcast, download this free report summarizing the discussion.
This story, "How to turn a 'toxic' IT shop into a trusted business partner" was originally published by CIO.