This blog has been active since mid-September, and thus far I’ve focused largely on a discussion of Business-IT maturity, and particularly on the so-called “sticking points” that seem common in mid-Level 2 - the halfway point between the earliest, tentative uses of large scale computing to support business processes and activities, and a nominal end-state, where the majority of what can be learned about business automation through IT has been learned.

I believe these sticking points are important topics for discussion.Over the course of a year, I get to work with a dozen or so major corporations, and to talk to CIO’s from many more, most of whom are dealing with one or more of these sticking points, and trying to increase the business value of their IT investments.

However, other than hinting at some of the characteristics, I have not come out and described what the IT organization might look like 10 years from now, and it’s time to begin addressing this question.

Clearly, there is tremendous variability in the shape, structure and characteristics of IT organizations today. I believe there will be more homogeneity 10 years out, but still lots of variation. One important factor in the shape of today’s IT organizations (and their shape 10 years out)is the nature of the business and its markets. For many companies, IT today is largely a support tool. If your business is manufacturing, it is tough to say IT is strategic - all the time, everywhere! Certainly, any competitive manufacturing business today is highly dependent upon IT. Companies such as Dell have in many ways redefined what it means to be a “manufacturing” company by using IT to manage a supply network across hundreds of global business partnerships. They have used IT to redefine order processing, and the customer’s role in customizing their configuration. But, even given all that, and the competitive advantage it afforded them, Dell does not make money on its IT capability.

Contrast a manufacturing business with an on-line bank, ING Direct, say. Here is a business where almost everything they do is web-enabled and digitized. They have created a bank with similar basic services to any high street bank (or at least the most commonly used subset of those services) without any customer facing tangible assets. Their IT is their ‘factory,’ their marketing and their distribution channel. As a result, they offer interest rates that beat most (all?) traditional bricks and mortar banking institutions. For ING Direct, and businesses like them, IT has been strategic, and represents a much higher IT spend relative to less information-intensive businesses.

Such distinctions of information-intensity and the role of IT capability in the business aside, I believe for most businesses, by 2017 there will not be separate and distinct business and IT strategies - they will both be part of a common strategic planning process. More on this in the next post.