NEWS One in 10 IT departments will disappear over the next five years as outsourcing and the commoditisation of technology continues to increase, according to Gartner.
The analyst predicts a period of radical change for IT departments, which will either have to take on a wider business transformation remit or face being completely embedded into the organisation as a pervasive commodity that is managed by business - as opposed to IT - executives as part of their functional roles.
This will see at least three-quarters of IT departments change their role with 10 per cent completely disbanded and 10 per cent relegated to commodity status.
Outsourcing will also have a greater impact over the next five years with IT departments employing 20 per cent fewer people and cutting the number of in-house technology roles by 40 per cent. By contrast businesses will double the number of information, process and business roles compared to 2005, according to Gartner's predictions.
John Mahoney, chief of research for IT services and management at Gartner, said a new type of IT department is emerging and that the role of IT leader will evolve with it.
He said in a statement: "While it will grow from an IT base, the primary focus of the new organisation will be business transformation and strategic assets of information and process. When mature, it may no longer be identified as an IT organisation."
But Mahoney said there is still controversy within businesses about the extent to which IT can, should or will be trusted with leadership of business processes and information.
Comments
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1. David Clark
Any technology group worth its salt is already busy ensuring that it is fully aligned with business strategy and working proactively to develop new business opportunities in tandem.
I've heard a lot of talk about the death of the IT function and it becoming part of mainstream business. The same could be argued about finance or HR - every senior manager is responsible and accountable for their P&L and people - is the suggestion that these same executives are somehow not responsible for the success of IT programmes, but by taking over management suddenly they will be?? Certainly without change there will be failure - however suggesting that IT will be exclusively a part of general management duties is the same as suggesting that you can make do without an FD or CFO - there has to be someone accountable individually, otherwise management by committee will surely kill off all possible competitive advantage!
2. Richard
Unless PCs, PDAs, etc. become much simpler and more reliable; there will be an increasing need for effective on-site support staff.
3. paul broome
Gartner Redtops
I heard this 20 years ago, 15, 10, 5 and now. Outsourcing will take some scalps, like retail companies outsourcing their logistics, for some it makes sense - maybe 1 in 10.
I'm immensely sceptical of Gartner et al reports, they clearly are the tabloid "scoop, shock" audience loaded report types.
Talk about "school of the Blinkin' obvious" headlines
I've got some
"Some IT proejcts fail- shock"
" Some CTO's not on board - Horror"
" OO vs RAD jsu a fad - inquiry"
Paul Broome