The term Information Technology (IT) was first coined in 1958 to describe the evolving computer technology that was beginning to be used to support the operation of a business. As computer technology evolved, so did the term IT. In the 90s and 20s, the IT name had become very overloaded, mainly by managers who had little underlying knowledge of the technology and who tended to apply the IT name to everything technical within their businesses. As the role of technology expanded within the business, the term IT became so blurred that it is now often unclear what the mission of your IT group should be. Confusing the role of IT can create operations problems for a company and is an important example of why it is necessary to spend time defining the organizational infrastructure of a company.
One symptom of this confusion can be found in the definition of the roles of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and that of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The role of the CIO is traditionally to lead IT as a business support function and the role of the CTO is to lead the product design function of the business. However, in many companies, the term IT is used to describe the software development group, which is a product development function with no infrastructure support mission of any kind within the company. The mission of the software development group is to design software source code for deliverable products, under the direction of the CTO … but they use computers and have IT-like skills, at least in the eyes of some managers who will soon They began to also refer to the software development group as IT. Confusing the IT mission can create problems. In small businesses, where individual employees tend to perform multiple roles, calling everything an IT computer touches is an easy way to group technical staff together. The problem occurs because the cost of general functions such as support and the cost of developing a product are easily blurred and the development team, who must be driven by schedule, is easily blurred on the business support functions.
The evolution of computer technology has also added to the confusion. The confluence of computing and telecommunications technologies, such as the use of VOiP phone systems, meant that voice communications had become another type of digital data and could run on the same technical infrastructure as email and other digital data. Video and other digital image data soon came together. Today, the cost benefits of moving data to “the cloud” mean outsourcing many of your traditional IT services. All of these functions deal with digital data and are possibly operations support functions, but by grouping all of these functions under the name of IT, companies tend to lose sight of the nature of their information and the requirements for managing their operational information. Again, labeling everything technical as IT can create problems. Requirements for managing business information include the need to comply with regulations that specify how certain types of information should be managed … regardless of the platform on which the information is executed. In today’s business environment, we want computer users to be more concerned with the applications they are running than the size of the hard drive their computer needs.
Where does this lead us? Perhaps the Temptations said it best in their 1970 hit “Ball of Confusion”, “that’s what the world is like today!” One way to solve these problems is to return IT to its roots as a support organization and let the Geek worry about HOW data is processed, while the rest of us focus on WHAT are the requirements for Information Management. (IM). This works best when you stop labeling everything that runs on a wire as IT and start focusing on the IM needs of your business.
As an example of the importance of distinguishing between IT and IM, consider the following. Current privacy and security regulations related to the handling of confidential health, financial and personal privacy information determine how many companies operate … whether the company uses confidential information of customers, employees and third parties. How that data is processed, that is, what size server is needed, how it is stored, how fast the network should be, and determining the best means of securing that data (such as encryption) clearly falls on the shoulders of IT staff. . But technology infrastructure is not the only business consideration. Compliance with regulations like HIPAA requires evaluating what information the company’s operations include by examining the workflow of sensitive information and the compliance risks associated with that data.
Observing workflow means first assessing whether the company uses confidential information and determining what risks there may be to that information. Certainly IT is on a mission to define how data is processed, but business policies and procedures, including guidelines for employee background checks, facility access controls, and removal of confidential information, are examples of information management that is not included in the traditional mission of IT. . Another way to look at this is to look again at the role of the CIO vs. that of the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). One of the main differentiators in these roles is that the CIO, who has knowledge of the technical infrastructure of the company, is probably not the best person to interpret the compliance regulations that the company must legally follow. In this situation WHAT is better left to the CCO while HOW is best left to the CIO. The CIO and the CCO obviously need to work together. This is done by having the CCO write the IM specification that the business needs for compliance, which should then drive the CIO’s IT infrastructure design. Most businesses will benefit from focusing on instant messaging rather than IT.
