Research house Gartner has been focusing a lot on the notion of 'two-speed IT', which they define as 'a need to keep things safe and steady, but be fast and reactive in other areas.' They take this definition beyond agile software development to a two-speed organisational structure, metrics, talent, partnering with startups and smaller organisations.
Brainstorm spoke to three IT decision-makers about whether there's a necessity for this kind of management two-step, and if so, how it can be realised in an organisation.
"We've certainly seen and acknowledged the need for a 'two-speed IT' approach, ensuring that there are two roles defined," says Christie Olivier, Accenture Africa CIO. "One person is responsible for managing the core network infrastructure and business applications, and another person is looking at the market and customer influences, allowing a much more nimble and agile approach to deploying new projects."
He says that given the complexity of the traditional IT infrastructure and the operational overhead this places on one person, it makes sense to have the two roles in place. This allows the CIO managing the IT infrastructure to focus their time on keeping the lights on while continuing to bring innovative solutions into the business that drive down operational costs and improve efficiencies.
Olivier says it's not possible to have the person managing this IT infrastructure understand market and customer influences when it's essential that they deploy with speed to remain competitive.
On the other hand, Olivier says that in the customer-facing role, there needs to be a fast track that allows projects to get approved, tested and deployed much faster. Obviously, strict governance models still need to be in place, but with a more tailored and refined process shortening the approval lifecycle.
"There's always a fine line between being at the 'bleeding edge' versus the 'leading edge' and one needs to have this line clearly drawn," he says.
The sad truth is that the dumbest users blame technology for their falling sales numbers rather than looking at updating their business engagement models from a marketing or sales perspective.
John Stallard, Home of Living Brands
These customer-facing CIOs should use the collaboration tools within their organisations to get input and feedback from multiple channels, using a type of crowdsourcing approach internally.
Speed not the problem
John Stallard, CIO at Home of Living Brands, believes that failure to deliver in the traditional IT model isn't actually the technology's fault. "Technology is only as smart as an organisation's dumbest user. The sad truth is that the dumbest users blame technology for their falling sales numbers rather than looking at updating their business engagement models from a marketing or sales perspective."
He says that in most cases, it's the lack of best practice basic processes and procedures that drive a business towards crisis, rather than failings on the part of the technology to deliver and reduce the risk from a smarter communication perspective.
"Most businesses' IT strategy - and the resultant investment therein - is controlled by the financial director. Investment in technology is decided by impact on the bottom line rather than a considered or knowledgeable appreciation of the benefits that can be achieved over a longer period by engaging with technology specialists."
At the same time, Stallard points out that business best practice monitors like Gartner and Forrester say that between two and five percent of overall revenue should be invested in technology to maintain overall competitiveness. However, many businesses rely on an IT budget of less than one percent. "Sadly, most businesses look at IT as an overhead rather than a value-add," he says.
He believes the focus on maintaining sales coupled with a failure to experiment inhibits a business' true growth potential, and can only be resolved by leadership commitment from the very top. "Two-speed IT can only be achieved when you link a visionary financial director with a creative CIO," he says.
Only halfway there
On the other hand, Guy Saville, IT director at SA Homeloans, believes that two-speed IT is not the best outcome that organisations can hope to achieve, and that they should be aiming for agility throughout the organisation.
"I'm sceptical of the two-speed IT concept," he says. "Where people are coming from with this is that there is a built-in conservatism in larger or bureaucratic organisations, where they cling to what they know well. They hold on to the traditional 'command and control' power structures and methodology-based way of doing things because the notion of agility can be a scary one."
As a result of this, he says, two-speed IT is seen as offering the best of both worlds - on the one hand organisations can cling to what they know and keep their auditors happy, and on the other, they can deliver earlier, and on cost and all the other good things that agility offers.
"This is where my scepticism comes from. Yes, it's better than nothing. Few organisations become agile overnight, and it's usually a bottom-up process rather than top-down. So you've got to start somewhere. But with two-speed as a permanent solution, these businesses will never realise the full benefits of agility for the business philosophy, culture and risk and people management."
Simply put, he says that if organisations accept the need for two-speed, then they're essentially saying that they're not going to transform. "It's an unambitious goal, lacking an understanding of what agile really is. Two-speed will offer some benefits, allow organisations to have some fun, but they won't realise the true benefits."
He maintains that organisations can be agile, but still have the good controls necessary to manage the business.
While there is no doubt that bureaucratic business structures hold back competitiveness, it will take a long time - if not forever - before many organisations see the true need for agility. In the meantime, two-speed IT will offer these organisations some insight into the benefits of being quick on their feet.
First published in the July 2014 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.
Share