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Our viewpoints

Root cause
We see lots of IT organisations, typically led by high quality CIOs. We're often seeing these same CIOs being let down by their management teams, they're not the right people or, frankly, they're just not good enough. The knock-on effect is that IT is just not being managed properly.

We hear the same story "My structure's sound - I've got a head of strategy and architecture; I have programme and project managers; someone to look after the day-to-day service delivery and somebody to look after and manage those important business relationships - what's wrong with that?"

Part of the answer
There is nothing wrong with that. Your structure may appear perfect, but that is only one component of successful IT management. You may really understand the end to end IT supply chain and the IT processes that you need to implement to support it, but that's only another part of the answer. The CIOs that we meet know this stuff and are typically taking steps to put in place the right sort of IT operating model.

The silver bullet
There is no silver bullet. Put in place the right structure and operating model and then add the correct mix of quality people to your management team and see what a difference it can make.

It's easy to lose focus on the key people in your organisation with all the pressures on you from the business. Take a long, hard and honest look at your management team and decide how many are really up to the job of delivering IT to the standard that a firm like yours should have.

Are they a group of specialists you've inherited, who've grown with the business and come up through the ranks? Do you have any individuals with the broad skills and experience who are capable of working out how to pull everything together? Identify who you should retain, who you can develop and where you need to go fishing for some new talent. Cast your net accurately and carefully.

Maybe it's time to stop addressing your management challenge with those external companies who might fill the gaps but don't transfer their skills.