Business and IT Units to Clash?

By Greg McNevin

October 30, 2007: According to new research from Gartner, IT leaders must consider alternative ways of delivering, packaging and procuring technology or risk being bypassed by business units.

The firm says it has identified 14 alternative delivery models that it claims will completely transform the IT market in the next five years, and have the potential to dramatically alter how IT is accounted for. Gartner warns that IT leaders must examine these models, lest business units begin to implement solutions without them.

At the highest level, alternative delivery models are approaches to acquire, package and deliver IT in non-traditional ways. Traditional methods of IT acquisition and delivery are wrapped in well-honed internal processes whereby IT develops or acquires technology (hardware or software), deploys it, supports it and retires it. Even when part of the IT service is outsourced or handled offshore, the provider runs the day-to-day service and may own part of the assets. The client IT function retains most of the risk and responsibility for the overall design and management of the technology life cycle.

“Traditional practices of technology life cycle ownership, where the organisation buys, configures, manages, optimises and retires technology for its own use, are being questioned as to their efficiency and effectiveness, so alternative delivery models for technology and services are emerging,” said Mark Margevicius, research vice president at Gartner.

“Alternative delivery and acquisition models include new channels for acquisition, use and payment. In some organisations, alternative models involve only users and business units, bypassing the IT function.”

The analysts claim that market excitement over Web platforms and software as a service (SaaS) models will only intensify, and as it does business buyers will be increasingly hungry for these new options and services. Gartner that over the next five years these pioneering services will become mainstream, creating new markets where traditional and alternative acquisition and delivery models coexist.

Comment on this story