Dispersing IT Power

 Dispersing IT Power

For many years, the gold standard for how companies structured their IT departments was to create a distinct division under its own leadership, with responsibilities ranging from the C-suite on up. As time went on, the seemingly mythical degree of independence enjoyed by that primary IT function gave rise to abusive behavior and practices that made it seem as though the company existed to accommodate the IT department rather than the other way around.



This paradigm was used when big, centralized mainframe computers (often manufactured by IBM) handled all of a company's computer processing needs. Companies needed to employ a small army of computer experts—many of whom appeared to have a completely different language and culture than the rest of the company—in order to program and operate these megacomputers, which were costly and complicated.



During the era of "big iron" dominating the IT sector, this corporate paradigm was both natural and necessary. But IT has changed the way it does business in the previous several decades. To begin with, operating systems like UNIX allowed for the development of smaller but powerful computers that might achieve enormous efficiency and pose a threat to the mainframe's dominance in the commercial world.



There was already a diminishing need for a single, supercomputer run by a small group of people who spoke a secret language before the rise of network computing, a logical progression in corporate technology that allowed for better data access and stronger communications across geographically dispersed departments. The democratization of computer power in the commercial world began with network computing. The necessity to move the business paradigm online has given new significance to the decentralized data processing business model, which has emerged in response to the internet's recent meteoric rise to prominence.



The last phase of decentralizing information technology has started to materialize in numerous companies. All levels of the company can now take advantage of the benefits of IT decentralization thanks to the placement of centers of operations and development at the department level.



A notable shift in company culture is the current tendency to locate department-specific applications and the computing resources needed to support them at the department level. Not only do the departments that gain the most from these applications get to run the show when it comes to those computer systems, but they'll also get to keep the programming and development resources that go along with them.



For instance, if the human resources department has a set of apps that they use to keep tabs on payroll, benefits, etc., those apps will be fully under HR's control. Consequently, HR management will now have oversight over functions including systems analysis, development, programming, and computer operations that were previously the purview of IT. The end effect is that all of the company's departments become fluent in IT jargon, which improves the company's capacity to assess its own needs and allocate resources accordingly.



This is not to discount the fact that decentralizing IT brings its fair share of new difficulties. Because of their far-reaching effects on the company, some IT problems require a worldwide response. Consequently, a chief information officer (CIO) and a set of high-level IT controls are necessary, to which the many departmentalized systems must answer.



When different departments handle their own information technology, it becomes much more challenging to integrate systems and identify ways in which they might work together to enhance productivity. It will be more difficult for departments to communicate with one another and for systems to be fully utilized if they each have their own hardware and network. Systems administrators may have greater departmental accountability than company-wide accountability, making quality control at this level more challenging.



If the shift from centralized to decentralized operations is to be a success, these organizational concerns must be addressed at the highest levels. Although there is a certain amount of work that will be required to implement such a significant change to the company culture, the benefits of delegating computing power to individual departments much exceed the dangers of failing.

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