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September 1, 2003

Closed Loop

Stick With IT

Regarding Joshua Greenbaum's "Divided Loyalties No Longer" (July 18, 2003), it has long been known that you need to understand IT to be able to make smart decisions concerning which solutions to apply — and how to implement them. I have seen many end users attempting to define the answer to a problem when they don't fully understand the problem.

Plenty of CEOs try to cut costs by eliminating the IT function and delegating someone within the business department to make strategic IT decisions, while taking on outside consultants for the areas of expertise that they feel they lack. The results are as follows: The wrong solutions are implemented or poorly implemented, and appropriate solutions are missed. All these situations have cost consequences. While there is a growing trend for IT to prove its value to the organization, I have yet to see these same organizations evaluate the "opportunity cost" of bad decisions made by those lacking the appropriate knowledge and skills or unable to properly manage the implementation of these solutions.

Merely giving IT training to end users isn't enough. They also need to have analytic skills and years of experience before they can make decisions of the same high caliber that experienced IT professionals can. Companies that train end users should also be forewarned that many of these people, once trained, command higher (IT-like) salaries and may jump ship after sufficient experience has been gained. All things considered, the company ends up with the same or higher costs — and quite often worse decisions than if IT had been involved in the first place.

Furthermore, if I had to choose between advice from an internal IT department or an external company, I would pick the former in nearly every case! The real solution to the problem is to tie IT objectives into the company's objectives and to ensure that IT and end users work closely together. This also means that IT should be better informed as to the business's needs so that the best advice can be given.

Ilene Schuss
Oceanside, N.Y.