Business

The future of corporate IT

Surfing a digital wave, or drowning?

Information technology is everywhere.For companies'IT departments, that is a mixed blessing

There is still plenty going on in the back office: the advent of cloud computing means that software can be continually updated and paid for by subscription, and that fewer companies will need their own data centres.

But the truly dramatic change is happening elsewhere.

Demands for digitisation are coming from every corner of the company.

The marketing department would like to run digital campaigns.

Sales teams want seamless connections to customers as well as to each other.

Everyone wants the latest mobile device and to try out the cleverest new app.

And they all want it now.

Rich prizes beckon companies that grasp digital opportunities; ignominy awaits those that fail.

Some are seizing their chance.

Burberry, a posh British fashion chain, has dressed itself in IT from top to toe.

Clever in-store screens show off its clothes.

Employees confer on Burberry Chat, an internal social network.

This may explain why Apple has poached Angela Ahrendts, Burberry's chief executive, to run its own shops.

In theory, this is a fine opportunity for the IT department to place itself right at the centre of corporate strategy.

In practice, the rest of the company is not always sure that the IT guys are up to the job—and they are often prepared to buy their own IT from outsiders if need be.

Worse, it seems that a lot of IT guys doubt their own ability to keep up with the pace of the digital age.

According to Dave Aron of Gartner, a research firm, in a recent survey of chief information officers around the world just over half agreed that both their businesses and their IT organisations were in real danger from a digital tsunami.

Some feel excited, some feel threatened, says Mr Aron, but nobody feels like it's boring and business as usual.

One reason for worry is that IT bosses are conservative by habit and with good reason.

Above all they must keep essential systems running—and safe. Those systems are under continual attack.If they are breached, the head of IT carries the can.

More broadly, IT departments like to know who is up to what.

Many of them gave up one battle long ago, by letting staff choose their own smartphones. When the chief executive insists on an iPhone rather than a fogeyish BlackBerry, it is hard to refuse.

That has been no bad thing, given the enormous number of applications being churned out for Apple's devices and those using Google's Android operating system, many of which can do wonders for productivity.

The trouble lies in keeping tabs on all the apps people like to use for work. With cloud-based file-sharing services or social media, it is easy to share information and to switch from a PC in the office to a mobile device. But if people are careless, they may put confidential data at risk.

They may run up bills as well. Many applications cost nothing for the first few users but charges kick in once they catch on.

The digital world, however, runs faster than the typical IT department's default speed.

Other bits of the business are not always willing to wait.

Marketing, desperate to use digital wiles to woo customers and to learn what they are thinking, is especially impatient.

Forrester, another research firm, estimates that marketing departments' spending on IT is rising two to three times as fast as that of companies as a whole.

Almost one in three marketers thinks the IT department hinders success.

The IT crowd worry that haste has hidden costs.

The marketers, points out Vijay Gurbaxani of the Centre for Digital Transformation at the University of California, Irvine, will not build in redundancy and disaster recovery, so that not all is lost if projects go awry. To the cautious folk in IT departments, this is second nature.

A lack of resources does not help.

Corporate budgets everywhere are under strain, and IT is often still seen as a cost rather than as a source of new business models and revenues.

A lot of IT heads, indeed, report to the chief financial officer—although opinions differ about how much formal lines of command matter.

But even if money is not in short supply, bodies are.

When the whole company is looking for new ways to put technology to work, the IT department cannot do it all.

Corporate IT bosses are right to fear being overwhelmed.

But cleaving to their old tasks and letting others take on the new unsupervised is not an option. Forrester calls this a titanic mistake.

The IT department is not about to die, even if many functions ascend to the cloud.

However, those of its chiefs who cannot adapt may fade away.

商业报道

IT企业的未来

数字时代浪头的弄潮儿还是浪下溺死鬼？

信息技术无处不在，这点对于一个公司的IT部门来说祸福相依。

但是在后勤部门仍有大量这种进程：云计算的出现意味着软件能不断更新并被订购，而且越来越少的公司需要建立他们自己的数据库。

但是真正戏剧性的变化却在别处上演。

资料的数字化已经成为公司各个方面各个层次的需求。

市场部门想发起数字化运动；

销售团队想与客户及彼此保持亲密无间的关系；

每个人都想拥有最新潮的移动设备，使用最智能的应用软件。

这些他们都想现在就实现。

抓住数字化机遇的公司得到了丰厚的回报，忽略它的公司则没有得到它的眷顾。

而有些则正在把握机遇。

Burberry, 一个高档的英国时尚连锁店，从头到脚都包装上了信息科技。

智能的店内屏幕展示他们的服装。

员工们则在其内部社交网Burberry Chat上商讨事宜。

这或许解释了为何苹果公司挖走了Burberry的前主管Angela Ahrendts去经营自己店面的原因。

理论上，这是IT部门将自己置于公司战略中心的绝佳机会。

而事实上公司其他部门通常都不确信IT部门那些家伙是对工作负责的，于是需要的话，他们常会打算去外面购买自己公司的信息科技。

更糟糕的是，IT部门的这些家伙也开始怀疑自己的能力是否跟上了数字化时代的发展潮流。

据调查公司Dave Aron of Gartner一项最新的调查表明，全球首席信息官一半以上都表示他们的生意和IT组织都在数字化的风暴中面临危险。

Aron先生说：有人感觉兴奋，有人感到被威胁，但没人觉得无趣，大家依旧照常做生意

担忧的其中一个原因是IT的大佬们习惯性的比较守旧，毕竟他们得保证必要的系统安全正常的运行。

那些系统常会遭人袭击，一旦有缺漏，IT的头儿就会挑起大梁。

更广泛的说，IT部门喜欢分工明确。

他们通过让员工选择自己的智能耳机结束了很久以前为这的争斗。当公司董事长坚持iPhone而不是之前的BlackBerry，这真的很难拒绝。

这也不是坏事，苹果设备和那些使用谷歌安卓操作系统的许多应用程序能极大地提高生产效率，问题是如何在人们喜欢用在工作上的应用程序上也贴上这种标签。

有了云计算文件分享设备和社交媒体后，分享信息或者从办公室个人电脑里转存信息到移动设备上也变得十分容易，但是如果不慎，机密文件就会处在危险之中。

它们或许会让你的账户瞬间归零，很多的应用程序在使用之初都是免费的，而一旦用户进一步使用，收费则接踵而来。

然而数字世界的运行比IT部门缺席的速度要快得多。

其他部门大都不愿等待。

市场部格外亟需使用数字化手段引导顾客想他们之所想。

另一家调查公司Forrester估计市场部在IT上的花销上涨是整个公司花销上涨幅度的二到三倍。

几乎三分之一的营销人员都认为IT部门阻碍了公司的发展。

IT界则担忧匆忙会有隐性成本。

营销人员指出加州大学欧文分校数字转换中心的Vijay Gurbaxani程序不会建立在冗余和灾难恢复之上，因此一旦项目出错，我们并不会失去所有。对IT部门谨慎的员工来说，这是第二天性。

缺乏资源无济于事。

公司预算处处吃紧，而IT部门作为新的商业模式和渠道仍被视作入不敷出—尽管有诸多关于命令上的分歧，

许多的IT首脑也的确向首席财政官如此汇报。

但是尽管不缺资金投入，却缺人手。

当整个公司正想方设法使用科技手段时，IT部门却什么都做不了。

IT企业老板害怕被超越是理所当然的。

但是撇开他们过去的任务让别人来承担有没有监管却不是个法子。Forrester把这个称作titanic mistake。

即使很多功能上升到云，IT部门仍不会湮灭。

然而那些适应不了的IT主管或许会淡去。