A better name for IT is "Business Improvement and Information"

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2008-06-07 01:02
Share this post with

An interesting article from IT Week suggests a better name for IT: Business Improvement and Technology. It shows IT as part of the business and contributing to the business. It separates op-ex and cap-ex. I'd go further and make it Business Improvement and Information

The article in question said:

IT Week: Why is your job title managing director for business improvement and technology rather than just IT director?

Benoit Laclau:When you look at IT there are two components: one is day-to-day operations, making sure everything runs when people arrive in the morning, and their apps and data are safe; the other is all the business projects that IT has to contribute to. These two components have a lot of different requirements and we wanted to reflect that.

...
What advantages does this approach give you?

One advantage is clarity between op-ex and cap-ex. The organisation is broken down into two arms: IT operations, which deals with day-to-day maintenance and operates solely as an op-ex; and business improvement, which represents a cap-ex. It also means there is no conflict between project and day-to-day priorities. The IT operations manager has two clear objectives: to improve service and reduce cost. Meanwhile, in the business improvement arm, we have a unified governance approach to projects.

Brilliant.

But still fixated on the technology. In this millenium technology is not what IT does. Technology is one enabler to what IT does (process frameworks are another). IT does information engineering.

So let's call ourselves Business Improvement and Information. I'd like to have "Engineering" in there too but that gets a bit ponderous, and maybe it isn't biz-speak.

So BII anyone?

Comments

Submitted by Paul Wallis (not verified) on Wed, 2008-06-11 00:51.

Information or data?

Hi Rob,

Your post formed the basis of my blog "IT (still) exists for one reason",

http://www.keystonesandrivets.com/kar/2008/06/it-still-exists.html#more

My take is that its not so much how the assets are tied together, instead we need to consider why they exist.

If the name has to be changed, I suggest something along the lines of "Business Improvement and Data Flow Control".

regards

Submitted by buraddo on Mon, 2008-06-09 06:42.

Batting out of our league

Two comments;

1) To suggest that what IT does is solely responsible for Business Improvement and therefore worthy of being labeled that, is a bit arrogant (it my small mind). We play a part, an important one at that, but Business Improvement is a partnership between IT and a number of other sources, including the business owner and functions of HR, Finance etc. etc..

2) Business improvement can be a nice mixture of 1 part cap-ex and 2 parts op-ex. Some organizations maintain significant operational expenditure for business improvement projects on a continual basis. Also, given most projects require people to execute and people are far more expensive than physical infrastructure, this is a bit misleading. Its pretty common practice to put physical infrastructure into a leasing vehicle to convert it to an operating expense, so pretty much the opex and capex differentiation can be pretty blurred..

Maybe the differentiation your looking for is discretionary vs. fixed recurring ?

$0.02

Brad Vaughan
http://blogs.sun.com/buraddo

Submitted by John Sundberg (not verified) on Mon, 2008-06-09 01:28.

another suggestion

I suggest a new name of Process development and management.

I think using the word "business" -- for a business function is redundant. I mean nobody says they work in Business Human Relations or Business Accounting or Business Facilities etc...

I also don't think it is wise to include the term information in the name. I feel that the word information is too close to information systems which I feel has significant negative energy to overcome.

Comments welcome...

Syndicate content