17 Sep Three myths that could spoil IT’s future
IT leaders need to overcome the myths that keep hurting IT’s reputation.
Stereotypes, ignorance, and misinformation. They’re all still conspiring to create the impression that IT departments are more of an obstruction than an asset to businesses.
As information technology professionals, we all know that IT can be a source of innovation and competitive advantage. We also need the business world to see IT through this lens, but currently there are too many myths skewing public perception of IT. My goal here is to address these myths and try to convey the right way IT should be perceived.
The single biggest myth is that IT is about providing technology. It’s not. IT is about providing people with the capabilities they need to do their jobs. Or, externally, it’s about enabling people to buy and use your company’s products and services. Companies don’t have computer problems — they have business problems.
f we want to convince the wider business world that IT is actually indispensable to a business, we need to defuse these three myths:
1. BYOD is a mess created by employees
This is false. The bring-your-own-device movement was created by IT. When internal IT departments failed to meet employees’ demands for mobile devices and services, they began looking for outside providers. In fact, IT has been dragging this problem around for at least 10 years, when people began bringing BlackBerry phones into the office. From the get-go, employees tried to circumvent IT departments because that seemed faster than waiting for IT to provide mobile services.