Comments on: Whom Do We Serve?

By: CIO Canada Links: Rock star CIOs - CIO Canada - IT World Canada

CIO Canada Links: Rock star CIOs - CIO Canada - IT World Canada — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:40:57 +0000

[...] star CIOsNextGovWhom do we serve?The Effective CIOInfighting in the IT department can lead to derailed projectsTechRepublicTechnology [...]

By: Paul Fox

Paul Fox — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:40:30 +0000

We all recognize without the ultimate customer receiving excellent products and services the issue of IT’s focus is irrelevant. IT must deliver internal value and develop credibility to be able to gain access to the source of corporate revenue. The simple yet effective recognition that when internal buyers of the IT resources are well served, the ultimate source of corporate profit will benefit. If IT is aligned with the business strategy and can clearly measure achievement against the objectives, definition of who is the client is neutralized.

By: Long Huynh

Long Huynh — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:51:00 +0000

I believe that we interpret the IT in your post in a larger sense that what was intended. If we use your definition of a customer as “the individual or entity to whom you are providing service”, I agree with you that a majority of IT customers are internal ones and they should be serviced as real customers. However, IT is more and more a business function, directly contributing to the business in collaboration (partnership?) with others. In this aspect, the focus on external customers is well placed and should be encouraged.

By: neiljpearce

neiljpearce — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:01:02 +0000

I want both. Firstly I am here to deliver benefit to the business and ultimately that means helping to increase sales, reduce costs and develop customer loyalty through the systems and processes that I design and deliver. Secondly to truely do the first I have to understand customers as well as my operations and business counterparts. Part of the problem in the past was that IT didn’t understand the end customer and therefore lacked credibility when it was proposing solutions to problems the business wanted to solve. Often this resulted in IT being told just build this and make it cheap rather than a partnership which leverages both business insight and technology to deliver a better solution for the overall business and in the end this is the consumer that generates the companies revenues.

By: Peter Evans-Greenwood

Peter Evans-Greenwood — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:09:55 +0000

Completely agree. All too often we forget why our IT was created, and start to value process over outcome. It’s good to be reminded that the business is not there to keep the IT department busy. My favorite part of my on-boarding at DHL Systems (many years ago) was the “follow the package” day. You’d eyeball a package come in over the retail counter, then follow it to its destination, riding shotgun all the way. (This is was in the days before health and safety concerns killed off riding jump seat in cargo planes.) It gave you a great sense of why you were there.