I've seen many different organisational structures over the last ten years, from one end of the spectrum to the other. Resoundingly, IT has always struggled to find a home. Most typically, it ends up in the operational "catch-all" department but I've seen some pretty amusing configurations. I've seen IT reporting into Human Resources, and also as part of the Marketing department. In this day and age, as technology has matured and embedded itself firmly in the "business critical" camp, it is shocking to see that many organisations still haven't gotten it right.

While there is certainly no "one size fits all" organisational structure, there is definitely room for improvement in the common understanding of where IT can most likely benefit from alignment with other organisational groups. We haven't gotten there yet in terms of getting past the "tech" part of "technology". Even organisations that have moved to calling their IT group Information Services still don't know where to put it.

I believe the problem stems from a fear of the unknown. Information technologies are not yet old enough to penetrate the older C-class executives, and some of the remaining management. Therefore, anything technology-related is not only misunderstood but also dismissed as "nice to have". However, pull the plug on any one of that company's business critical systems (aren't they all business critical?) and it immediately becomes very apparent how "nice to have" these systems are. Technology is no longer a self-serving entity, trying to justify its existence. Instead, it is the heartbeat and breath of the organisation, which has become totally dependent on its flawless existence. Perhaps by making our systems so operationally sound, we have created this problem for ourselves.

Without fail, every organisation I have worked with that suffers from this "IT alienation" is losing good people at an alarming rate. Invariably the IT managers are frustrated and have a hard time keeping their priorities straight as they are often being driven by a steering committee or a business leader, each of whom often has limited understanding of the pressing issues faced by IT internally and externally. Once again, the organisation is suffering from misalignment between business priorities and IT capabilities.

The business must not just commit to supporting IT initiatives - that's totally missing the point. The business needs to clearly state its higher level corporate objectives and be able to think about how technology can help support these. Vice versa, IT needs to be able to relate back to the business. In either circumstance, the business needs to understand the alignment that does or does not exist between the business needs and the IT capabilities and go about fixing these. Yes, this may even mean a re-org but if it results in signficant improvements to outcomes, is that not worth it?

IT needs a home that allows it to clearly see how its own capabilities are aligned with the business, letting IT staff members see that all the long hours do contribute signinficantly to corporate goals and objectives, and allowing them to make adjustments to their personal efforts in order to better align with business.