IT infrastructure | The Merlyn Group

A New Era of Enterprise IT Leadership?

This post proposes that we have been through two distinct eras of IT leadership, and are entering a third—one that is fundamentally different from prior eras. While the first two eras were characterized by centralized leadership, the emerging third era is dispersed and networked, emphasizing a different set of skills for IT leaders. This is not a return to the old ‘decentralized’ IT operating model of times long gone, and explains the emergence of the Business Relationship Manager as a key IT leadership role.

How Do You Optimize IT Capabilities for Business Value?

In their groundbreaking book, The Discipline of Market Leaders, published in 1997, co-authors Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema argued that companies that have taken leadership positions in their industries have typically done so by focusing their strategy on one of three value disciplines, and optimizing their business operating models accordingly. They don't ignore the other [...]

Does Cloud+Consumerization Doom the Federated IT Operating Model?

The Federated IT Operating Model is Under Threat! Today, most organizations employ some sort of Federated IT Operating Model. Wikipedia defines a federation as: ...characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division [...]

Why It's Time to Re-Think IT Funding Models! – Part 1 of 3

The Live 3rd Rail! Recently, a colleague said to me about a client, "It's time to raise the subject of their IT funding model. The current model is causing all sorts of dysfunctional behaviors!" My response was, "You are right - but I really don't want to go there just yet. I don't think they're [...]

Do You Have IT Organizational Clarity – Part 3

This picks up on Part 1 and Part 2 in this series on IT Organizational Clarity. In Part 1, I discussed the importance of IT Organizational Clarity, the symptoms when clarity is compromised, and the challenges of trying to address those symptoms rather than the root causes that lead to compromised clarity. Part 1 closed [...]

IT Organizational Implications of Cloud Computing

First off, let me make myself clear. I firmly believe that Cloud Computing, in its various forms, is real, absolutely inevitable and will completely revolutionize the form and role of the IT Organization. Some readers will look at that sentence and laugh - it's like saying "day will pass into night." Obvious, beyond dispute, devoid [...]

Exploring an IT Operating Model for Enterprise 2.0 – Part 4: IT Governance

In Part 1 of this series, I suggested that the implications of Enterprise 2.0 for the IT organization are dramatic. I also suggested that the ways of designing and executing an IT Operating Model in a Web 2.0 context are quite different from traditional approaches. In Part 2, I outlined the major elements of an [...]

Supposing You Funded IT Like a Charitable Donation?

I've had this IT funding fantasy for years (I know, it's really sad that my more exciting fantasies are to do with IT funding scenarios!) Supposing the CIO had to do a fund drive every year or every six months the way our local National Public Radio stations had to operate in order to fund [...]

Portfolio Management: So Much More Than a Collection of Projects!

I've posted recently about Program Management - mainly in response to a reader's question about how to group projects into programs. Her question, in turn, was in response to one of my most popular posts on the distinctions between Project, Program and Portfolio Management. IT Portfolio Management Matters! I'm delighted that my old post on [...]

The IT Infrastructure Investment Deficit Disorder

How should you treat IT infrastructure investments in a recession? I was listening to an interesting piece that got me thinking about this question on NPR this morning titled "Obama's 'Big Fix,' And Investment Deficit Disorder." Renee Montagne interviewed New York Times columnist David Leonhardt about his January 27 article, "The Big Fix." Determining IT Infrastructure [...]