We have been living through of "bean counters", where theoretical good practice (ITIL), accountability (SLAs), performance (number of incidents resolved), all seasoned with political correctness, equal opportunities and other things have totally distracted managers from what they SHOULD be doing. And managers on the Business side and the IT side are equally guilty.
"IT" is a silly term now. Obviously one would use computers and technology. So drop the T, and we become the Information Department. This gives a clue to what the Head of IT SHOULD be doing. The management should be advising the business on what Information we hold, and how it could be be made available and leveraged.
When was the last time your IT Manager took that approach? A very long time ago, I bet?
Information is the sum total of all the data in an organisation. That data should be regarded as the most valuable asset after the employees, and it should be cared for and nurtured. This means weeding and archiving, capacity management and planning, and investing in better forms of storage, and in code that can extract and re-align data into the most useful combinations.
THAT is what the management on both sides should be working on.
Discussion on:
Message 3 of 1
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
