What is becoming obvious: The digital transformation forces companies to act – particularly with regard to innovations. The role of IT departments grows as companies must keep up with growing innovation pressures and the speed of innovations. They too must find ways to become more innovative and work more closely with the business divisions. Because the lines between the business and IT are starting to blur.
IT departments should see this as an opportunity to provide better solutions through a better understanding of the business requirements and greater proximity to the customer. Because if IT departments do not join in this process, they run the risk of losing their role as innovators and becoming a pure commodity IT organization without significant relevance to the business. In this case, it would quickly lead to questions about the need for in-house IT departments, and full outsourcing in the direction of zero-IT may be considered.
CIOs must be active players in this process and in the digital transformation, instead of letting it happen from the outside. Otherwise, they run the risk of becoming a victim of the disruption. At the same time, there is an opportunity for transforming the shadow IT into Citizen Development and innovative power. On the way there, IT organizations should ask themselves the following basic questions:
- What does an operating model in which Business and IT work hand in hand look like?
- What measures must be implemented to generate sustained added value from the shadow IT?
- How can the IT organization maintain its control over the IT landscape?
