Trim the ‘spaghetti’ in IT systems before buying new technology: Expert

Spending on IT can be a pain — it’s a never-ending shelling out of cash.

On the other hand, it can be fun: “Look,” you can tell management, “I’ve got the latest (fill in the blank — cloud service, switch, call centre, mobile device management suite……..).”

But a leader of a European business school’s research arm says all that spending is worthless if your overall technology stack is an unrelated mess of  what he calls “spaghetti.”

That’s the message Nils Fonstad brought to an AT&T Canada customer event in Toronto on Thursday.

Fonstad is associate director the French-based Insead business school’s eLab. He was presenting the results of an international survey of 225 IT leaders sponsored by the global telecommunications provider into how IT helps make companies more competitive.

The results, he said in an interview, backed up the school’s other research.

Firms that described their IT platforms as immature who invested in new technology did not perform better statistically than organizations that spent little money, Fostad said.

“We identified a group of firms that were essentially wasting their investment in these new technologies (cloud, mobility and collaboration) if they were pursuing greater agility.”

The short survey proves “having a mature digitized platform is not simply beneficial, it’s a necessity. In today’s world its essential that firms not lose sight of what they’ve accumulated in the past as they strive to be more agile. They can’t focus on  the most promising new technologies. They have to keep in mind how those new investments relate to their past investments, both in terms of the technology, in terms of the (business) processes and in terms of the data.”

They’ll then be in a better position to exploit the technology, he added.

“CIOs understand, but most senior management teams don’t, that to invest in new technology doesn’t make an organization agile,” he said.

Ideally, IT leaders can take the survey results to management to explain why its important to have an enterprise architecture, and a conformance process for evaluating new IT products or services that staff demand.

He defines a mature digital platform as one in which the IT technology, business process and data components are standardized, shared and integrated.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Howard Solomon
Howard Solomon
Currently a freelance writer, I'm the former editor of ITWorldCanada.com and Computing Canada. An IT journalist since 1997, I've written for several of ITWC's sister publications including ITBusiness.ca and Computer Dealer News. Before that I was a staff reporter at the Calgary Herald and the Brampton (Ont.) Daily Times. I can be reached at hsolomon [@] soloreporter.com

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now