| The new buzz word for companies looking to the | | | | This siloed approach has traditionally meant that IT |
| future | | | | shops have spent too much time trying to pull |
| An oft-heard mantra these days is aligning IT with | | | | information together from disparate systems to try |
| the business. Many IT departments are struggling to | | | | and gain consistent visibility across the different |
| evaluate how well they service their customers' | | | | processes making up IT. |
| needs or even to demonstrate what value they | | | | But because there are no end-to-end application |
| provide. | | | | suites such as ERP available at the moment to help |
| To make matters worse, they have no clearly | | | | them do this, some firms are starting to take point |
| defined way of linking potential demand for IT | | | | solutions such as portfolio management and helpdesk |
| services with available supply, because any such | | | | and integrate them together themselves to try and |
| information is generally held in functional or | | | | obtain a consolidated view of the demand side of |
| project-based silos within the organization that are | | | | things. |
| difficult to get at, let alone manage proactively. But | | | | Key elements of IT include project and portfolio |
| there is a new embryonic market category that is | | | | management, resource and asset management, |
| attempting to tackle just such thorny issues. | | | | performance and change management, business and |
| Although this nascent sector currently goes under | | | | IT service management and service delivery. While |
| many different names ranging from Forrester | | | | individual tools to undertake such tasks exist today, |
| Research's Integrated IT Management to Ovum's IT | | | | there is currently no one single vendor with all of the |
| governance, a particularly descriptive moniker has | | | | pieces of the jigsaw in place and none that are able |
| been proffered by AMR Research in the form of IT | | | | to feed all of the necessary information from the |
| resource planning (ITRP). | | | | different pieces into a single underlying database. |
| While there are no guarantees that this will become | | | | As a result, vendors of all stripes are jumping into the |
| the industry's designation of choice, it is nonetheless | | | | melee with varying degrees of success. Large players |
| evocative of what IT departments are trying to | | | | such as Compuware, IBM and Mercury Interactive, of |
| achieve. | | | | which AMR believes the latter to be the most |
| The idea behind ITRP as a product suite is to provide | | | | advanced, have already amassed many of the |
| CIOs with enterprise resource planning (ERP)-like | | | | elements and are starting work on integrating them. |
| applications to help them undertake such tasks as | | | | Suppliers such as Hewlett Packard, Computer |
| identifying relevant stakeholders, defining their | | | | Associates (CA), BMC Software and Peregrine have, |
| requirements and objectives, and establishing and | | | | to date, concentrated mainly on the supply side of |
| managing how much time, money and resources will | | | | the equation, but are likely to flesh out the demand |
| be needed to fulfil them. | | | | management piece over time, perhaps by partnering |
| Yet another aim is to centralize information | | | | with different point product vendors or alternatively |
| emanating from key IT processes and procedures so | | | | by acquisition. |
| that IT departments can generate reports in business | | | | There is also a range of new start-ups starting to |
| language for executive managers, spelling out exactly | | | | make their presence felt, however, the two highest |
| what they are delivering and the value they are | | | | profile of which are ITM Software and Troux |
| providing. | | | | Technologies, while traditional ERP vendors such as |
| The core of IT governance is about knowing how | | | | SAP and some of the large systems integrators are |
| the IT architecture fits together, how to manage it | | | | also starting to sniff around, despite having failed to |
| and how to plan for change. If the business has a | | | | clarify their intentions to date. |
| requirement, how does it communicate that to the | | | | On the bright side, the recognition that work needs |
| IT department? And how will that requirement affect | | | | to be done in this area has always been there and |
| the IT infrastructure, processes, resources and | | | | the thinking around it is maturing. |
| assets because once you've understood how it plays | | | | It's on people's radars from a strategic point of view, |
| in with the rest of your everyday or strategic | | | | but for many, it's a very daunting prospect. You can |
| requirements, you can see the choices that you have | | | | start at this from many angles, but it's about how to |
| going forward. | | | | join up the dots and because very few people have |
| People are really starting to focus on this because | | | | a greenfield site, they have to look at how they can |
| they're trying to find ways to help the business be | | | | migrate to something that will work in the future, |
| more efficient. It's all tied up with the aftermath of | | | | while maintaining what they have. |
| an industry that overspent, didn't meet expectations | | | | The best approach is for IT directors to ask |
| and then went through bad times, which has left the | | | | themselves what they're trying to do now and what |
| business jaded. In a way, IT is having to prove itself | | | | they're trying to achieve in the future and to match |
| and vendors and services providers are also trying to | | | | that against the IT architecture, people and |
| find ways to make their offerings more saleable and | | | | processes that they already have in place. |
| bypass the cynicism. | | | | The next step is to undertake gap and risk analyses |
| But another issue that many IT organisations are | | | | and map the outcomes to the IT department's |
| finding is that they are unable to exploit new | | | | strategic aims, before starting on small scale process |
| concepts and technologies such as service-oriented | | | | re-engineering and automation projects to fill the |
| architectures effectively because they simply don't | | | | biggest holes, whether that means resourcing, |
| have the right underlying foundations in place to do | | | | project management or hitting service level |
| so. | | | | agreements. |
| Interest in ITRP has been sparked off by the fact | | | | But there may be downsides to going with the |
| that many enterprises have transformed the way | | | | forthcoming end-to-end application suite approach |
| they operate to deal with an increasingly globalized | | | | too. On the one hand, large suites are likely to be |
| market so it's now a matter of IT creating a | | | | complex and lead to more complicated and longer |
| strategy to deliver against that. | | | | product selection cycles. |
| Companies have spent the last 10 years implementing | | | | On the other hand, unless IT organizations and |
| systems such as ERP to try and deliver global | | | | vendors are careful to use their existing knowledge |
| business processes and they're pretty far along the | | | | and expertise, there is always the danger that the |
| way. But this means that IT can't remain in a siloed | | | | long implementation times, which gave ERP a bad |
| and fragmented form and has to transform itself to | | | | name a decade ago, could be repeated in a future |
| the new global way of doing business. | | | | ITRP world. |