The rules of IT consulting are changing
From where we are sitting, things are changing. IT buyers are starting to understand that what technology needs to “support” is the fastest and most efficient way for the company to create and deliver value. It’s not enough for developers to know how the tech tools work; they need to be able to connect with the managers who decide the value the tools should be used to create. IT projects on this landscape have some distinctly different characteristics than they did in the era of “back-office big iron.”
- Connect, don’t build – Back in the day, there was really a decision to be made about whether to build new functionality in-house or to buy a package and customize. That’s occurring much less now, given the proliferation of special-purpose software engines, stacks, connectors, config templates, etc. available on the network. Microsoft is not the only giant to have decided that the future is not software-AS-a-service, but rather software-AND-services, sometimes a little thicker on the client, sometimes on the server. The emerging default strategy is becoming “connect, don’t build.” As high-speed network connectivity has become more ubiquitous and reliable, this strategy is taking root in some expected places (Amazon’s S3 storage service; SalesForce App Exchange) and in some not so expected places (Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud, where processing itself can be scaled up or down as needed).
- There is no perimeter – If you question whether the behavior preferences of knowledge workers today are really all that different from the era of back-office “big iron,” look at the discipline of data security. Back when accessing remote files or logging into your desktop remotely was still slightly exotic, strengthening the “perimeter” of the infrastructure made some sense. But now, with workforces more dispersed, applications themselves decentralized, near-real-time data feeds informing corporate dashboards with timely performance stats, how would you even define “inside” and “outside?”
- Iterate – Software companies certainly didn’t invent the concept of launching 80% (60%?) products and iterating their way to full-featured releases, but they may have perfected it. Now that so much business innovation is offered and delivered (and consumed!) via technology, corporate reputations rest not just on launched products, but on their whole value-creating mechanism itself – how fast do they correct minor flaws, what is their response to customer service issues for their product, how respectful are they of their own installed base of previous versions, etc. Iterative loops minimize the errors in the final software; the emerging best practice for large-scale projects is to build the project plan as a series of small pilots, for exactly this reason. In many cases now, iteration is largely done “without a net.” Releases that might once have stayed in private beta for months are now released to carefully warned enthusiasts, and passion drives the feedback loops. Ever noticed how long a new Google app is “in beta?”
- Insulate – Really the watchword of data security in this age of content-led innovation. This is what replaced the concept of perimeter security – “jacketing” the content itself with access provisions, permissions, encryption, proprietary formatting, etc that protect it from falling into the wrong hands at the wrong time, in the wrong form, for the wrong duration.
- If you cannot prevent it, you must detect it – The essential follow-through of any data technology professional today. Not every threat can be identified and not every breach proactively defended. What can occur, though, is intelligent and creative sensing of intrusion, with or without disturbance, and protective isolation of the most sensitive data.
What IT Consulting learning are your feedback loops bringing you? Come to http://www.whatevercompliance.com/it-consulting/the-next-threshold/ and add them to the list.
