Reimagining enterprise IT for an uncertain future

The role of the information technology department is under scrutiny in a way that makes its past challenges seem almost quaint by comparison. Cloud computing services provide an alternative source of powerful technology. Employees are getting work done using free Web applications as well as their own laptops and smartphones. Executives can make many of their own technology decisions. Traditional IT function roles are being displaced. No wonder some analysts and executives are asking whether IT departments are necessary anymore. It may be an exaggeration to say that IT departments should go the way of secretarial pools, but the function is certainly ripe for reinvention. In a new Accenture Institute for High Performance survey, IT was chosen most often, as the function business executives would most like to build from scratch. IT executives singled out their own function as a target for reinvention by an even bigger margin. (See Figure 1.) IT, the agent of change, is now the target. But how should enterprise IT evolve? How will it be sourced five years from now, and what should be its roles, responsibilities and business goals? That is where many executives appear to be stuck. Less than a third say they have a clear vision of how their IT function will look by that time. Barely one in five business executives say they know what the CIO role will consist of in five years. (See Figure 2.) Prepare for multiple futures To arrive at a new vision of enterprise IT, senior business executives should center their efforts on creating enterprise IT functions that are “futures ready.” A futures-ready posture recognizes that it is folly to bet on a single outcome. It is much better to recognize the radically different ways in which the business environment could change, imagine how IT might adapt to those changes, and have the judgment, readiness and courage to evolve when the time comes. Enterprise IT doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Our research into the factors influencing business and technology uncovered more than 60 forces that Figure 1: Enterprise IT is at a crossroads IT is the function that executives would like to rebuild from scratch, when asked to choose just one With no constraints, which part of your organization would you want to build from scratch?