It’s time to return IT to the geeks and let instant messaging set the standards!

The term Information Technology (IT) was first coined in 1958 to describe the evolution of computer technology that was beginning to be used to support the operation of a business. As computer technology has evolved, so has the term IT. In the 1990s and ’20s, the IT name had become heavily overloaded, primarily by managers who had little underlying understanding of technology and who tended to apply the IT name to everything technical within their businesses. As the role of technology has expanded within the business, the term IT has become so blurred that it is now often unclear what the mission of your IT group should be. Confusing the role of IT can create operational problems for a company and is an important example of why time should be spent defining a company’s organizational infrastructure.

A symptom of this blur can be found in the definition of the roles of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and that of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The CIO’s role is traditionally to lead IT as a business support function and the CTO’s role is to lead the product design function of the business. In many companies, however, the term IT is used to describe the software development group, which is a product development function with no infrastructure support mission of any kind within the company. The mission of the software development group is the design of software source code for deliverable products, under the direction of the CTO… but they use computers and had IT-like skills, at least in the eyes of some managers who soon began to also refers to the software development group as IT. Confusing the IT mission can create problems. In small businesses, where individual employees tend to wear multiple hats, calling everything that touches a computer IT is an easy way to group technical staff together. The problem occurs because the cost of overhead functions such as support and the cost of developing a product are easily blurred, and the development team, which must be controlled by the schedule, is easily diverted from supporting business functions.

The evolution of computer technology has also added to the confusion. The confluence of computer and telecommunications technologies, such as the use of VOiP phone systems, meant that voice communications had become another type of digital data and could run on the same technical infrastructure as email and other digital data. Video and other digital image data soon joined. Today, the economic benefits of moving data to “the cloud” mean outsourcing many traditional IT services. All of these functions deal with digital data and are possibly operations support functions, but by lumping all of these functions under the umbrella of IT, companies tend to lose sight of the nature of their information and the requirements for managing their operational information. Again, by labeling everything technical as IT, you can create problems. Requirements for enterprise information management include the need to comply with standards that specify how certain types of information should be managed…regardless of the platform on which the information runs. In today’s business environment, we want computer users to be more concerned with the applications they run than the size of hard drive their computer needs.

Where does this lead us? Perhaps the Temptations said it best in their 1970 hit “Ball of Confusion,” “Such is the world these days”! One way to solve these problems is to return IT to its roots as a support organization and let the geeks worry about HOW data is processed while the rest of us focus on WHAT are the requirements for information management ( IM). This works best when you stop labeling everything that runs on a wire as IT, and instead start focusing on the IM needs of the business.

As an example of the importance of distinguishing between IT and IM, consider the following. Today’s privacy and security regulations related to the handling of sensitive health, financial, and personal privacy information dictate how many businesses operate…whether the business uses sensitive information from customers, employees, and third parties. How that data is processed, i.e. what size server is needed, how it is stored, how fast the network needs to be, and determining the best means of securing that data (such as encryption) falls squarely on the shoulders of the IT staff. . But technology infrastructure isn’t the only business consideration. Compliance with regulations such as HIPAA requires assessing what information goes into business operations by examining the workflow of sensitive information and the compliance risks associated with that data.

Looking at the workflow means first assessing whether the company uses sensitive information and determining what risks there may be to that information. IT is certainly on a mission to define how data is processed, but business policies and procedures, including guidelines for employee background checks, facility access controls, and the removal of sensitive information, are examples of information management that are not included in the traditional mission of IT. . Another way to see this is to look again at the role of the CIO vs. that of the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). One of the main differentiators in these roles is that the CIO, who has knowledge of the company’s technical infrastructure, is probably not the best person to interpret the compliance standards that the company is legally required to follow. In this situation, WHAT is best left to the CCO, while HOW is best left to the CIO. The CIO and CCO obviously need to work together. This is done by having the CCO write the IM specification that the business needs for compliance, which should then drive the CIO’s IT infrastructure design. Most companies will benefit from focusing on IM instead of IT.