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Lost in Translation
The ‘business/IT divide’ appears to be bigger than ever at the very time when business technology is converging and everyone and everything is becoming connected. So it is little wonder we have so much real-world debate on new business technology models and how business can embrace them! At the very time when we are seeing the exponential rise of communities of interaction, mesh working, information centricity and co-value creation/value networks as new cornerstones of business management, the business/IT divide is getting worse, not better – and so inherent business potential is still elusive on the scale one might expect.
If you ask people in business what one of the biggest root causes of problems they face today, almost without exception you’ll hear about the ‘business/IT divide’. This might not surface immediately – but progress the discussion a little and at some point there will be an issue – perhaps around business complexity, business agility, customer interaction or business information – that ultimately leads to a problem with ‘IT’ – and more precisely, a problem with the business/IT divide.
If you ask people in IT the same question, you’ll get the same answer. So at least ‘business’ and ‘IT’ agree on something! The unfortunate reality is this is a crisis of communication which is now so entrenched and intractable that many people cease to notice it any more.
About 10 years ago I joined a unit in Capgemini called ‘Technology Consulting Group’. Years before this the unit helped establish a community which to this day incorporates a simple philosophy amongst its Values – that the business/IT divide is not only addressable but that it is inevitable it will be somehow – and that business and technology are equal partners in the practices that make this real.
I think we have discovered a step forward in the journey of addressing the divide. Nigel Green and I, with the support of many compatriots, have attempted to do the discovery justice and share it through a book ‘Lost in Translation – A handbook for information systems in the 21st century’. The website is www.LIThandbook.com.
A holy grail it is not, but a complementary step forward we believe it is. We hope you find the thinking useful and we’d love to hear your views.
Ps - I’ve a few preview copies of the book available to share on a first serve basis – please drop me a line.
Posted by Carl Bate on January 8, 2008 | 
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Comments
# on January 8, 2008 7:54 PM, Niraj J said:
Why do Business and IT have to be different constituents? If I am running a marketing department , do I go out to a different department to get ideas . If I am running a R&D lab in pharma , Do I go out to a different department to perform my R&D experiments.
I can understand the notion of Corporate standards and governance from an IT process standpoint. But making treating IT as a business in itself is the conflict of interest.
# on January 9, 2008 10:50 AM, Carl Bate said:
Hi Niraj
Good point and for sure business and IT have developed over the years as separate constituents due to the specialised capabilities required.
But disciplines that worked for mainly internally focused business operations are not the same required for mainly externally connected systems (such as value networks).
And the latter is today's fundamental business technology mega-trend - 'externalisation'.
We're already seeing the role of the IT function moving toward organising and governing as you say - giving the business freedom to interact and providing control over transact.
There are many nuances to the topic and in the end we find a focus on _information systems_ to provide a useful unifying perspective - be it for business technology itself or the interaction between 'business' and 'IT' functions.