Demand/Supply Organization Models Have Pros and Cons

IT View and Business View Best Practices, by Marc Cecere

Trade publications and consulting firms have been singing the praises of a new type of IT organization model — the demand/supply (D/S) model. D/S organizations separate IT resources that manage demand from those that supply IT services. They have the advantages of flexible sourcing, specialization, and better management of multiple services vendors but the disadvantages of reduced accountability and increased overhead. Given a sparse track record, CIOs considering this model must recognize that as with all major organizational changes, this will require significant management time and could potentially be disruptive to operations. Therefore, changing to a D/S organization should be implemented only when there is a high use of services firms, great need for variable resources, and a greater focus on managing business demand.

EA Adds A Fourth Pillar To IT Value Management

IT View and Business View Best Practices, by Alexander Peters, Ph.D.

Maximizing IT's contribution to business results requires reliable governance structures combined with mature processes for evaluating investment options and making prudent decisions. But if the evaluation of initiatives vying for funding is too narrow, the result will be sub-optimized value — projects narrowly scoped and benefits, costs, and risks too narrowly evaluated. The antidote is to elevate the enterprise architecture (EA) process as a tenet of business change and technology management, and make it part of the enterprise value framework that governs IT investments. Making EA a pillar of the enterprise IT value framework means that EA shapes the structure of the IT portfolio and provides guidance to the value governance and investment management processes.