IT Isn’t A Cost Center, It’s Now a Value Center

It’s an ugly term that seems to rear it’s ugly head regularly. Cost Center. As an IT organization you may feel a bit insulted when that term is used in association with the exceptional work that you do. But, the teams that use it in relation to the work you do aren’t necessarily placing judgement. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, it’s common knowledge that IT consumes more revenue than it produces.

However, what would life be like without IT altogether? That cost in itself would be detrimental to the business, let alone not having that internal service provider available to keep employees working efficiently. Whether or not IT generates profits directly is beside the point in this modern environment, IT can and does contribute to organizational success. It’s just that sometimes you have to take a step out of the confines of IT, show some leadership, and remind people just how much value is brought to the table by this one department.

“With all of the anytime anywhere access, the service desk has had to evolve and learn more about the business,” said Cinda Daly. “The service desk is positioned to actually rise to that. They’ve been solving problems all along. But, now they can take how they’ve been advancing the business and apply that to other areas of the business that are doing repeat tasks.”

So, how do you advance into this position of IT transformational hero? Well, that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about all month. And, in case you missed the steps we’ve recommended, here are the cliff notes:

1. Nobody Puts IT in the Corner — Keep your ear to the ground and stay on top of business objectives through the adoption of agile best practices.
2. Who’s the Expert? You’re the Expert! — Save the day by responding to other departments’ cries for help by introducing KPIs and tools to get the job done efficiently.
3. The Jetsons Have Nothing on Your Organization — Every hero has cool gadgets, and IT has some of the coolest ones out there. Help your co-workers adopt modern tools, too.
4. It Isn’t the Size of the Data that’s Important — It’s the Quality — Everyone loves big data, right? Ensure your business is tracking the right analytics and measuring the right information to get the most out of it.
5. IT Leads, Your Organization Follows — Protect the knowledge coming and going from your enterprise through Knowledge Management. Just because some leaves, shouldn’t mean the knowledge goes with them.
6. Automation is Your Middle Name — You’re not a fire department, so why are you constantly putting out fires? By automating services through workflows, each department can get ahead  and become a well oiled machine.

With the increasing digitalization of businesses, IT is being called upon to step up to the plate and lead the enterprise with its expertise in processes and proactive approach to workflows. It’s about ditching those antiquated ideas of IT as a cost center and empowering technicians to emerge as thought leaders.

Are you ready?