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Is there room (and time) for innovation in enterprise IT departments?
Secondhand, it seems like many individuals in IT at large corporations are beleaguered with maintaining the status quo and keeping systems up and running efficiently. Does this prohibit transformation and innovation? What can be done to change that?
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2 Answers
Yes.
With that said, we need to look at what type of innovation can and does occur in the "day to day" world of IT (or any organization for that matter). We often think of innovation in terms of the next big product or service (or hardware or software thingamajig). But lots of innovation occurs in *how* IT services are delivered to customers. And there is a lot of innovation in figuring out how to make technologies perform more effectively in the real world. So when we take the blinders off there's actually quite a bit of innovation occurring every day.
Not every company can offer Google's "20% of your time for innovation" model. But as a recent Dilbert cartoon points out, when you're working 60+ hour work weeks then that 20% is not so attractive...
So how do you create an environment where innovation can occur in the midst of tight deadlines, scarce resources and shrinking budgets? Very simply, recognize and reward people for doing creative things. Trying to institutionalize innovation is a recipe for failure. Primarily because it usually ends up with many artificial innovation activities that are driven by management's need to demonstrate a ROI for their innovation "investment". Over my career I've found that if you challenge people with solving tough problems then they will find very innovative and creative ways to do so. If you recognize and reward them for their efforts, they will look for bigger and tougher problems to solve the next time. It can be a self-energizing process.
In direct response to your question, the short answer is no. There simply is not room for innovation in enterprise IT environments today.
In my experience, enterprise IT environments are generally “engineering” facilities as opposed to “innovating” facilities. What I mean by this is that IT personnel are expected to use existing, established, and available tools to solve business problems. This is the definition of engineering. We can use those tools in creative ways, but the acceptable tool set is defined.
While this can at times feel somewhat rigid and restrictive, it serves an important purpose. Excessive diversity in an enterprise IT environment actually has the effect of impeding overall organizational effectiveness as opposed to enabling it. While each individual department feels as though they’re doing very well, in reality economies of scale and opportunities for consolidation are being missed. These efficiencies are essential for overall organizational competitive advantage.
In practice, innovation in IT systems (in a non-IT enterprise) has a relatively high TCO and low ROI over established (vendor) systems. The principal driver of the high TCO in my experience is the cost of support. Developers and computer scientists are far more expensive than application support engineers. Also, when supporting a widely used application or system, the large user base provides a deep pool of experience to draw from. With internally developed solutions, you’re on your own. Further, your internal brain trust becomes essential and irreplaceable.
The ROI tends to be relatively low also because an individual company’s needs don’t typically vary that far from the needs of their competitors. Using an industry product and configuring it to meet your individual needs and practices is generally much more economical than building one from scratch.
The exception to this is that in some practices, operations are actually trade secrets that companies would rather not embed in a vendor product. I have found this to be true particularly in insurance and finance.
Unfortunately, I really don’t see increased innovation in enterprise IT as a good thing. I think that true innovation really belongs to the solution providers who do that as a business. If an enterprise is engaged in a non-IT primary line of business, I think they’re generally best served partnering with technology providers as opposed to doing it themselves. Most of us would not consider building our own cars or homes if our core competencies are in accounting or criminal law, I think enterprises should approach IT in a similar way.
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