Healthy Ecosystem
So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
As we have all learned, in nature a healthy ecosystem benefits all involved. When any part of the ecosystem is in ill health, in time all other aspects of the ecosystem will suffer. An IT organization operates in a similar manner. When all aspects of the IT ecosystem operate in harmony it operates much more effectively and efficiently.
Let’s look at the various aspects of the IT organization’s ecosystem.
- IT Customers / Business Units. First and foremost the IT ecosystem exists ONLY because of the customers (business units) they serve. A healthy relationship between the business units and the IT organization will have constant constructive friction in the supply and demand of IT services, and great governance across all areas where business units are supported. This is the foundation of the IT ecosystem in the same way that water is the foundation for a natural ecosystem.
- Business Customers. Frequently IT organizations will interact directly with the business customers IT organizations. Information flows between organizations are not only common, but contractually necessary in many situations. As a result, this part of the ecosystem will often receive a heavy emphasis internally. It is also true that if this part of the ecosystem is not working well, the business units will be working sub-optimally, and IT staff will be spending excessive amounts of time trying to meet their deadlines.
- Internal staff. For the sake of simplicity this will include all people who are working on the IT organization’s payroll. This will include all levels of management, as well as all people who are performing development, maintenance, operational support, training, implementation, and IT customer relations. There are many people here, and they all have a role to play.
- Shadow IT. Every organization has a Shadow IT group. [See Glenn Remoreras' post Taking Advantage of the Extended IT Network] It may not be overtly publicized, but it is there. In some companies it may take the form of the super-users that everyone turns to for support. In other companies it will be formalized with some title that reports directly to the business group. Regardless of formality, there is a clear working relationship between it and the IT organization.
- Outsourced Staff. It has recently become very common to have some of the IT organization in the hands of an IT outsourcing firm. This may be a domestic firm or one from overseas. The interaction with this firm and the CIO, business units, and internal IT staff is critical. Good situations can be very good. Bad can be very bad.
- Contractors. As with any functional area, the demand for services will ebb and flow. The specialized skill sets required will also ebb and flow. It is increasingly necessary have a deep understanding of the profile of your IT organization, where it is strong and where it is not. Having a stable of contractors to support internal staff where and when necessary is a healthy situation to be in. Without this stable in place, the organization has no room to flex as conditions and demands change.
- Consultants. Different from contractors, consultants play a critical role in the IT ecosystem. These people / firms will provide the IT organization, and as often as not, the CIO him/herself with advisory services. The world is changing far too fast to keep up with everything that is happening externally, especially while trying to put out the fires which are burning inside the organization. Consultants bring the valued external perspective and are the trusted advisor to the key decision makers. For a healthy ecosystem, it is common to many such advisers, each of which having a different focus.
- Vendors (Products and Services). The number of vendors which are tied to an IT organization is a finite number, but a very large one. Each type of physical asset (laptops, servers, routers, etc) will have at least one vendor, each software product (desktop software, server software, point solutions, enterprise solutions, integration solutions, interfaces, system management, reporting, etc) – you get the idea. There are a lot of vendors here. Thankfully, they all don’t have sales reps filling up your calendar, but they all have to be addressed. All other aspects of the ecosystem will tie into product and service vendors.
- Industry Analysts. Harder to see, this group of people are loosely tied to the IT organization through their perspectives. At one time they were found primarily in places such as Computerworld, Information Week, or PC Magazine. Broader and more comprehensive analysis would be found from companies such as Gartner or Forrester. More recently many of these same analysts could be found in the blogosphere providing similar information in a different distribution channel. Twitter also is becoming a tool for finding industry research. Like consultants, these people are providing a valuable external perspective, albeit in a more generalized form.
- Industry Research. A form of industry analysis, this group of people will typically take a industry leading edge topic and conduct extensive research across many companies who have or are currently crossing that bridge. This is typically much more specific and targeted than the industry analysts would provide. Industry researchers are also often associated with the consulting firms as the research done across companies is valuable to the specific company if it can be implemented there. Like the consultants noted above, this group become trusted advisers to key decisi0n makers within the IT organization.
While not an exhaustive list, this list of players within the IT ecosystem is significant. They each have a role to play, and if they do not play this role well, it may be difficult for the rest of the ecosystem to operate well. Part of the responsibility of the CIO is to shepard this ecosystem – to build and tune it to the current and future needs of his/her organization. An ecosystem which is healthy will also be self-sustaining. An ecosystem which in poor health (possibly invisible to all but those on the inside living with the problems), will take a effort to repair, sometimes a great amount of effort. It is not an easy task, but a necessary one.
If you could point to the areas of your IT ecosystem, where are you typically strong or weak? Thinking about this may allow you to uncover sources to many of your more elusive problems.
This information really saved me much time from all the scouring I would have needed to do!