Organizing and Leading the IT Function

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Organizing and Leading the IT Function

• Chapter 8
• Presented by
• Rhonda Reid
• JohnDre Jennings
• Roopan Jeganathan
• Joseph Duwana

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Possible Implications of Excessive IT and User
Dominance

• IT Dominance
• Too much emphasis on database and system
  maintenance
• Benefits of user control over development are
  discussed but never implemented
• Study always shows construction costs less than
  outside purchase
• IT thinks it is in control of everything
• Users express unhappiness
• All new systems must fit data structure of
  existing system
• IT spending 80 on maintenance and 20 on
  development
• General management is not involved but concerned

• User Dominance
• Too much emphasis on problem focus
• Hard evidence of benefits non-existent
• Soft evidence of benefits not organized
• Few measurements/objectives for new system
• Technical advice of IT not sought if received,
  considered irrelevant
• Dramatically rising communications costs because
  of redundancy
• IT feels out of control
• Explosive growth in number of new systems and
  supporting staff

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Organizational Issues in the Control of IT
Activities

• From Centralized, IT-Driven Innovation to
  Decentralized, User-Driven Innovation
• User-Driven Innovation over IT Department
  Protests
• From Decentralized, User-Driven Innovation to
  Centralized IT Management
• From Decentralized, User-Driven Innovation to
  Unexpected Centralized Innovation

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Implications

• Key drivers in business users desire to gain
  control
• Analyze the need for centralized coordination of
  systems deployment
• Identify and discuss core policies that
  management must implement to balance tensions

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DRIVERS TOWARD A CENTRALIZED IT STRUCTURE
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STAFF PROFESSIONALISM

• Maintaining a Central IT Department
• Recruit and retain
• Keep staff up to date
• Maintain technical competence or expertise
• Management of personal development for IT staff
  is key for outsourcing IT activities

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Standard Setting and Ensuring System
Maintainability

• Reducing complexity and cost
• Addressing long term and short term business
  needs
• Inefficiency is major reason for not addressing
  short term business needs
• Insuring maintenance costs
• Lacking practical design experience

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Envisioning Possibilities and Determining
Feasibility

• Addressing immediate needs
• Poor planning
• Feasibility
• Growing processing requirements
• Attractive visible features
• Having an accurate assessment of vendor stability
  is critical
• A bad product results in having to extract a
  system from a companys infrastructure

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Corporate Data Management

• Synchronizing databases across an enterprise
• Access files as needed
• Focal point for conceptualizing and developing
  system
• Need for data sharing
• Effective data management policies and standards
• Keeping data secure

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Cost Estimation and Analysis

• Producing realistic systems and deployment
  estimates
• Estimation is difficult in decentralized program
• Corporate charge back systems
• Cost analysis and management in activity based
  computing utility framework ensure consistency
• Central control benefits long term cost
  avoidance and technological risk reduction
• Central control risk is lack of short term
  responsiveness

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Conditions and Location of IT Policy
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IT Staff and Business users

• Tension and Challenges

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IT Staff Vs Business Users

• Can be handled and managed by having a clear
  policy and implementing it appropriately.
• A clear policy should specify
• The user domain/users responsibilities
• The IT domain/IT functionality
• Senior Management's support in implementing the
  policy

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IT ResponsibilitiesFor Managing long term IT
needs

• Develop and mange long term architectural plan
  with reviewing it periodically
• Develop a company standard for
• Telecom Protocols and plat forms
• Client device and client software configuration
• Server devices and database management systems
• Programming and configuration languages
• Documentation
• Data definitions for company used data elements
• Storage, backup and disaster recovery
• Information security policy and incident response
  procedure

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IT ResponsibilitiesFor Managing long term IT
needs Contd

• Establish procedure for outsourcing for new IT
  projects
• Maintain an inventory list of installed and
  planned systems
• Identify career path for IT staff
• Establish internal marketing efforts to let
  organizations staff the challenges that IT staff
  experience and the hidden cost of maintaining IT
  systems
• Identify and maintain relationships with systems
  suppliers
• Educate users benefits and pitfalls of new
  technologies

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User Responsibilities

• To identify IT Opportunities
• Implement new IT services
• Understand user cost

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To understand user cost, business users should

• Understand the scope of IT activities
• Develop a time line for user involvement in
  moving to a new system
• Ensure comprehensive understanding about the
  functionality of the system
• Periodically audit systems to make sure
  functionality
• Participate in developing new systems to give
  inputs as per to user needs

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Systems Planning

• More user involvement is preferable to less

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Management and IT policy

• Develop a strategy for the company on IT
• Lead the planning of IT policy
• Form an IT policy/working group
• Identify long term plans and short term plans and
  develop policy accordingly
• Senior management needs to lead the
  implementation of IT policy

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IT policy working group

• Ensure a balance between IT and Business users
• Include both groups in planning process
• Develop standards on IT functionality Implement
  it
• Conduct performance review on existing systems
• Actively encourage technical experiment
• Facilitate transfer of technology from one to the
  other
• Maintain an active inventory list of IT services
  and products

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IT Policy Group

• Senior management
• Staff with broad technical knowledge
• Practical IT Administration
• Ability to communicate to senior management

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IT Leadership and the Management of budgets

• Organizational structure as it relates to
  resources allocation varies with institutions
• Some business entity allocate greater budget
  control to IT
• Other allocate greater budget control to
  Management users

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Allocating larger budget underIT control

• Centralizing effective IT control over various
  business functions
• Granting Sole IT decisions the IT department
• Resting technical and infrastructures acquisition
  solely to the IT department
• Limiting IT decisions to IT department

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Allocating larger budget control to Management
users

• Decentralizing IT function to Management users
• Granting larger IT budget to Management users to
  allocate for expenditures increases
• Limiting the functions of IT department to
  technical or infrastructures decisions

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General Rule

• Granting technical and infrastructure
  expenditures decisions to IT
• Leaving IT expenditures decision that
• directly affect management users to management
  users
• Setting the relative proportions of budget for IT
  and users control

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Appropriate balance of emphasis between
innovation and control

• Assign larger budget to IT department
• Permit Management users to come up with necessary
  IT needs
• Management users request IT Technical assistance,
  linking and coordinating requested IT needs to
  network operation
• Permit IT department to acquire necessary
  expenditures

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QUESTIONS ???