The Essence of IT

What many assumed to be a fading and hopeless precinct, have eventually got their foot in mouth. We are talking about the IT sector, replenishing with the advent of all the innovative trends that technology has offered mankind. Technologies such mobile and data applications have provided a new lease of life to the IT department and it is now being witnessed, with CIOs in the foreground, as one of the most assiduous and pivotal part of an organization, reports Marco Tapia of RustReport.

Once viewed only as a cost-cutting department, the IT department has undergone an immense paradigm shift not only generating revenue for the organization but also metamorphosing the very essence of how business and industry conducts their operations. Clarity in this regard could be viewed if we scrutinize the impact on the retail sector by online shopping, the impact on the publishing and media sectors by web and mobile access and the impact on marketing and promotion by online marketing. Fairfax and News Corporation have also reaped the benefits offered by neoteric changes.

In this context, CIOs have done a commendable job so far shouldering the responsibilities entrusted to them by the management in the face of the surge in the IT sector. Initially, they were only entailed to shepherd the IT staff and bring about viable solutions for the management for cutting costs in the operations. However, they can now concentrate, using their analytical skills, on increasing the productivity of the organization thus playing a more substantial role in the overall management.

So, be it a CRM solution, SaaS, cloud or for that matter of fact be it the daily applications an average person uses like Gmail, Dropbox, Web Apps, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, and Android apps, everything can be credited to this phenomenal change which has brought about in the IT sector. And the CIOs, in this regard have assumed a more strategic role right from managing relationships with vendors and business providers to formulation of policies and procedures; increasing productivity and generating revenue being paramount on their list.

Therefore, a complete review of the technical staff is mandatory as veterans do not possess the requisite skills to keep in pace with fast changing scenario of the IT sector. An overall recruitment of fresh personals is the need of the hour for accentuating the productivity process. Emphasis should be given to KRM (Key Relationship Managers), Business Analysts and (sometimes) Project Managers who has a better understanding of the conventional IT trends and have certified technical know-how of the best solutions suitable for the respective business.

As the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it’s nearly everything.”