No matter what metaphor you use, the issue remains the same. CIOs and IT departments get consumed by fighting alligators instead of draining the marsh. That is to say, they spend too much time on the symptoms rather than the underlying causes.
This is evident in every budget project since the beginning of time; even in top-notch insurance IT departments, 70 percent of the budget is allocated to running the business. Running the business is important—and a prerequisite to any other activity.
But if that is the issue, how do we change the equation? Some carriers create greenfield operations to launch innovation teams or adopt bi-modal organizations by separating activities that run the business from those that grow the business. These efforts are useful, but if they are done inside of the same budget limitations, the percentage of efforts typically doesn’t change.
Money can change the equation, but real change requires strategic thinking and a common understanding of the ultimate goal. Armed with this information, IT should strive to shift money typically spent running the business toward making a strategic blueprint for the future and a roadmap to accomplish that blueprint. These tools should inform the whole team about the direction of the organization; everyone should have the context of even the smallest decision.
Simple terminology changes should support the goal. It isn’t maintenance—it’s production. The latter has purpose of improvement. If the strategy is to have the highest level of availability the next time a request or regulatory update is addressed, will it be in a batch job or moved to real-time REST APIs? We can argue about what might be easier and faster, but the latter supports the goal. Regulatory changes are very time sensitive, so it can take several of them over time to get to the end point.
It’s hard to get approval for straight-up IT architecture; even if all the money was available, it couldn’t be applied all at once. IT transformation is more akin to re-underwriting a book of business. Neither can just be shut off and restarted overnight. Using operational money in the context of a strategy is one source of the funding needed to support strategic change.
In this context, running the business is one of the most complex and difficult roles IT has, and it requires steady, strategic leadership. This reframing can motivate IT teams who felt they had been banished to “maintenance.” We can’t kill every alligator at once, but dropping the water level over time below where alligators can live is an aspirational goal IT should embrace.
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