The role the IT organization can play depends on how the Business views their dependency on IT and if they trust that the IT manager can take care of it.

1. The role of Technology
Services in the Business
Business IT Integration Framework

2. Technology has become part of all aspects of modern day society
• Customers expect to be able to communicate through at least one or more
digital channel (portals, e-mail, social media, etc.)
• Most Tax Offices, financial services and suppliers are expecting the use of
digital forms and digital payments
• Many internal business processes are at least partly monitored and controlled
through IT applications (ERP)
• Most workers are using an IT device (desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone) to
perform their activities
• In many sectors the role of IT is increasing in importance: in Healthcare
eHealth is booming, in Education MOOCs and other forms of digital education
have become disruptive

3. Formal IT organizations are still needed to align with the business
• BITA (Business IT Alignment) is still a core challenge for most IT departments
• Shadow-IT is a growing concern: business users are actively searching and
applying alternative IT solutions without consulting or engaging their IT
department
• Bimodal-IT has become a viable option for many organizations: the formal IT
department takes care of steady-state IT (continuity) while business based
digital initiatives are renewing and innovating business models (disruption)
• In many occasions the IT department seems too slow to keep up with the
digital initiatives in the world and seems more obstructive than cooperative
when it comes to investigating new technology

4. A clear role of the IT service organization defined by the business
• A lot of IT managers have found that they do not have a clear assignment from
the board that set outs their role within the organization
• Disruption and digital transformations are not equally relevant for all
organizations and companies. For some it is strategically important to stay on
top of technology and innovation for others it might be sufficient to follow the
market
• Defining a shared business view on the role of IT within the organization
guides the IT manager to bring the IT department up to par. It also helps with
defining which aspects of IT services are key to the organization and which
services can be outsourced

5. Business Views
Business perceptions on their need for IT Services:

6. 5 Possible views on IT by the business
• The business needs to express clearly their overall expectations of IT
• Why is IT (or an IT service) of importance to the business?
• What happens to the business when a specific IT service is temporary not available?
• How is the business expecting the IT provider to deliver the IT service?
• The role IT plays in the business will change over time
• Where IT might help to open a new market or introduce a new service, over time the
business will want to consolidate more than they want to expand
• The competitive advantage of being the first to offer a specific IT based service will
disappear over time when the technology becomes more widely available
• Competitive advantage might also turn into a disadvantage when there is a lock-in and the
business is unable to work with the latest improvements in technology (legacy trap)
• The view and expectations of IT by the business are mostly determined by the
dependency on IT in the core activities of the business

7. No Strategic View: the business does not feel that they need IT
No Strategic View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT

8. For some businesses IT is more necessary evil than strategic asset
• In some circumstances IT is not a real necessity for existence: tradesmen that
are dependent on their skill and on recommendations through personal
relations, local shops with a dedicated following, social workers, etc.
• They might need to use some IT solutions: to fill out their tax-forms, to do their
regular banking or to communicate with clients
• They do not see the added value that some IT services can bring them and
they might be even more aware of some of the negative aspects of the new
digital world (the 24/7 notifications/disruptions)
• They only need IT support when IT is not working for them or when they are
expected to use a new IT service for a specific situation. Most often they will
find some IT support in a local setting (through relatives, friends, community)

9. Scattered View: some business managers perceive an use of IT
No Strategic View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT

10. For some business managers IT applications bring a specific advantage
• In the past 30 years of IT evolution a lot of new services were introduced in the
workplace through business users that recognized a specific advantage of an
IT application: bookkeepers introduced spreadsheets and sales managers
introduced CRM like applications. To some degree examples of shadow-IT.
• With the focus on specific applications the business managers also expect
specific focus on these applications by IT. In many situations this meant that IT
was also expected to program and code to make the application fit to the
requirements
• In most case these applications were more supportive within the business
than they were supporting the core activities. It allowed a fragmented business
strategy towards IT: some business managers were enthusiastic while others
remained skeptical

11. Commodity View: The business sees IT as a supportive tool
No Strategic View
Commodity View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT

12. When IT is mostly supportive to the business
• For many companies and organizations IT is mostly supportive. Technology can
play a part in many aspects of the business and at the same time it is not
seen as crucial to the business survival.
• Failure in IT might cause the business to be upset and angry, then they will turn to
alternative ways to deal with the situation and ultimate there will be little actual damage
to the business. Most business organizations have had some major issues with IT in the
recent past and thus there is a lot of understanding for the occasional breakdown of IT
• Most business staff perceive IT as tools to support their activities and they will only need a
shallow understanding of the underlying technology
• In general IT services are perceived as an utility, like water and electricity. IT
needs to work and the costs of running IT should be comparable to the
competition

13. Enabler View: The business feels very dependent of IT
No Strategic View
Enabler View
Commodity View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT

14. There is a great dependency on IT services in the core of the business
• Digitizing their core activities in the past has led to a great advantage for the
business now and at the same time has led to a great dependency of IT
• There is a high risk of losing business or harming the company when the
technology is either unavailable or compromised (hacking, security-issues)
• In most cases the underlying technology of core activities is highly complex
and difficult to understand for both business managers and general IT
providers: high level of specific expertise is needed to support the business
• Risk is a more important driver for IT strategy than costs

15. Strategic View: IT is of great importance to the strategy of the business
No Strategic View
Strategy View
Enabler View
Commodity View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT

16. Technology can also expand the business and play a strategic role
• The use of technology can make it easier to access new markets or to reach a
new group of customers
• Investing in new technology can bring the business a greater advantage over
their competitors, business managers want to be on top of IT
• The distinction between business and IT becomes irrelevant, IT is the business
or the business is IT

17. IT Focus
What is on top of mind for the IT organization?

18. 5 focus areas for the IT organization
• What is on top of mind of IT (in general) explains how IT is aligning with the
business
• There can be a difference between what IT says their focus is and how they
actually behave: action speaks louder than words
• Some of the focus of IT is more inside-out or provider perspective and others
are more outside-in or business perspective

19. Technology Focus: there is no real interest in understanding how IT supports
the business
IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
Technology Focus

20. IT is mostly concern with the technology they are supporting
• The IT department is mostly concern with how IT works and less worried about
how IT can support the business
• The IT department doesn’t really understand how technology is being used in
the business
• When they deliver presentations they go straight into Operating Systems,
Software Applications, Programming, Network Diagrams, etc.
• When they are asked to help solve a business problem they will dive into
programming a solution from the start and will not even think to consider non-
technology options

21. Product View: IT believes that business value is in the IT products
IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
Technology Focus
Product Focus

22. The IT department delivers IT products to answer straight forward business
questions
• The IT department has a general understanding that there are users for IT
products in the business
• They have found manuals to help them create IT service organizations, like
ITIL/Cobit/DevOps, Scrum or Prince2 and they try to follow these guidance
they way they understand them
• The IT department seem to be pushing SLA’s and is very specific about
availability of their systems (99.8%)
• The IT department is still reasoning from their delivery aspect and finds it
difficult to see the business perspective.

23. Customer Focus: IT delivery starts with the customer demands
IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
Technology Focus
Customer Focus
Product Focus

24. Answering customer questions is the base of IT delivery
• The IT department actively listens to the customer demands and tries to find
answers that will truly help their customers to move forward
• The IT department is organized around timely service delivery and how to best
support customer requirements.
• The customer is actively involved in the delivery of new IT services and in
running the daily service operation. There are clear communication channels
between IT and their customers.
• IT can support multiple customers with different demands and requirements
as long as their customers can articulate these well.
• The IT department anticipates on future customer requirements and will
educate their clients on new and relevant developments.

25. Business Focus: IT understands how the business is based on IT
IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
Technology Focus
Business Focus
Customer Focus
Product Focus

26. IT understands certain aspects of the business better
• When business processes are running almost exclusively through IT systems it
is possible that the people managing and updating these systems understand
more how the specific business process work than the actual business users
• IT can take on the responsibility of the specific business process on an
outcome or value based performance contract
• This changes the dynamics for the IT department: they were mostly supporting
the core activities (cost center /overhead) now they are delivering one or more
of these core activities (value or even profit center)

27. Strategy Focus: IT is of great importance to the strategy of the business
IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
STRATEGY FOCUS
CUSTOMER FOCUS
PRODUCT FOCUS
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
BUSINESS FOCUS

28. IT can open new markets or help the business become more competitive
• When IT learns to understand the business processes they support and they
can play an active role in delivering these processes they can also find ways to
apply new technology to increase the business, market share and value
• IT is not doing this from a supportive role, meeting business demands. IT
themselves are in a driver seat and are actively working side-by-side with
business management to explore the strategic potential of technology
• IT understands the true strategic value of technology in relation to the
business they are in

29. BITI Framework
Discovering business expectations on the role of IT

30. Combining business view with IT focus creates a perspective on current and
future needs for business and IT cooperation
• In most organizations there will be elements of all business views and often
there will be some aspect of IT that is considered to be strategic
• It is relevant to find the business view that is close to the actual understanding
of the business need for IT. It might be that overall IT is more seen as
supportive to the business (ic Commodity View) than that IT is expected to play
an active role in the business (ic Enabler or Strategic View)
• This might require asking more questions to drill down the actual perception of
IT
• The same can be done for finding the relevant IT Focus. Often asking the
business users and managers their perception of the current IT support will
help.

31. The BITI Framework can be used to assess the current level of business and
IT cooperation
No Strategic View
Strategy View
Enabler View
Commodity View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
STRATEGY FOCUS
CUSTOMER FOCUS
PRODUCT FOCUS
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
BUSINESS FOCUS

32. In most organizations there is a unbalance in business perspective and IT
focus
No Strategic View
Strategy View
Enabler View
Commodity View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
Product Focus
STRATEGY FOCUS
CUSTOMER FOCUS
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
BUSINESS FOCUS

33. There are several different kinds of unbalance in business and IT
cooperation
• In most organizations the Business View is actual fuzzy (scattered) and
implicit, it is difficult to identify the actual View from the perspective of the IT
department. The IT department tends to guess the Business View to be lower
than it actual is. There are many IT managers who think that their business
users are not mature enough for professional IT services
• The IT department thinks that they need to have business focus and the
business has actually a commodity view: the IT department presents solutions
for the business that is not expected of them
• Most often the IT department think they have a customer focus and in reality
they are still in product focus where the business is in Commodity View
• The most problematic is where the business is in Enabler View, feeling the
dependency on IT services, and IT is in product or customer focus.

34. It helps to determine where IT needs to put their focus and improve their
performance
No Strategic View
Strategy View
Enabler View
Commodity View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
Customer Focus
Product Focus
STRATEGY FOCUS
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
BUSINESS FOCUS

35. There are several scenarios for improving the relationship between business
and IT
• In a lot of cases the IT department needs to switch from an inside-out to an
outside-in perspective first to be able to have an relationship
• Part of this switch is business management allowing the IT manager to
become truly accountable for IT service delivery and for the IT department
• The business often needs to learn to better articulate their demands and
requirements to IT, this might be accomplished through a kind of broker
(business relationship manager, service broker)
• On the other side IT will have to learn to articulate their services in terms that
business users and managers understand and recognize. IT needs to take
ownership of these services, in terms of costs and risks, and negotiate price
and conditions with the business.

36. The BITI Framework helps to understand the position of IT within the
business
No Strategic View
Strategy View
Enabler View
Commodity View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
STRATEGY FOCUS
CUSTOMER FOCUS
PRODUCT FOCUS
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
BUSINESS FOCUS
IT is Cost Center
IT is Value Center

37. Each Business View has its own demands on the IT organization
IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
No Strategic View
Strategy View
Enabler View
Commodity View
Scattered View
On-time
support
Inventive
solutions
Quality of
Service
Mission Critical
dependence
Competitive
Advantage
• Innovation
• New Markets/New
business
• Shared
• Prevention
• Anticipation
• Understanding
• Pro active
• Beyond IT
• Cost efficient
• Standard
• Measurable
• Auditable
• End-to-End
• Off the shelf or
• Custom-Made
• Per process or function
• Project based
• Off the shelf
• Small/free
STRATEGY FOCUS
CUSTOMER FOCUS
PRODUCT FOCUS
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
BUSINESS FOCUS
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT

38. Understanding what is expected of the IT department supports finding the
role of the IT department
• When IT plays a supporting role in the perspective of the business it will be
difficult for the IT department to play an active role in (digital) transforming the
business
• When IT is perceived as a cost center it will be confronted on a regular basis
with the need to lower their operational costs and there will be little room for IT
to show how technology can lower business costs
• When IT is still internal focused it will not be considered mature enough as a
partner to the business: this role will be taken by external advisors and
providers

39. The expected role of the IT organization and the nature of the relationship
No Strategic View
Strategy View
Enabler View
Commodity View
Scattered View
BUSINESS PERCEPTION OF NEED FOR IT IT SERVICE ORGANIZATION
System
Administrator
Co-Owner
IT Business Partner
Internal or External
IT Service Provider
IT Department
trust
contract
Overhead/colleagues

40. The IT organization needs to work with their own business partners
• When the expectations of the business on the current and future role of IT are
clear than the expected role of the IT service organization can be defined
• When Strategy View and Strategy Focus come together the distinction between
business and IT become irrelevant
• When the IT Service organization is expected to be a (business) partner to the
business, delivering specific services and competences to support the core
activities of the business, than trust is the guiding principle for the relationship
• When IT services are considered to be commodities for the business, the
relationship will become more contractual and financial. It will also mean that
one provider can be exchanged for another provider without extreme
difficulties

41. Next Steps

42. Idwell services in Business IT Integration
Idwell helps organizations in designing digital strategies and in helping them find
the best solution to control and manage the execution of these strategies
• Idwell offers services to identify Business Views by interviewing key business
users and managers as well as offering workshops where business
management and IT management can discuss expectations and roles
• Idwell offers services to help IT departments identify their key IT Focus as well
as assessing the quality and maturity if their IT service delivery. This can be
used as input to identify key areas for improvement and to start a lasting
transformation of the IT service organization

43. Contact Information
Paul Leenards (Idwell):
p.leenards@idwell.nl
+31 6 1869 3246
http://idwell.eu
http://idwell.nl

44. Acknowledgements
• The are several publications on the BITI Framework or BITI Maturity Model
• Job Ten Hagen, designing and transforming IT organizations: roles, responsibilities and
organizational structures (TSO, 2012)
• Paul Leenards, Kijk door de Service Management bril naar de regie organisatie (Tijdschrift
IT Management, 2013)
• Paul Leenards en Julius Duijts, Governance van Outsourcing (IT Beheer Magazine, 2006)
• Oleksandr Varlamov (University of Twente) has done research into the framework in 2010:
http://www.slideshare.net/VarSan/biti-mm-aligns-the-worlds-hat-belong-together