General Motors is about to provide its answer to that question.
In a masterfully reported story by Chris Murphy on our sister site Information Week, comes the news that GM CIO Randy Mott has gained approval to transition from an almost-completely outsourced IT operation to almost-complete insourcing--and to do it within three years. The project will involve massive purchasing of IT infrastructure and hiring of IT personnel, and Murphy writes:
"This dramatic move away from outsourcing is just one piece of the 'IT transformation' Mott is leading, which includes consolidating data centers and applications, centralizing IT planning and execution, and getting a better grip on GM's customer and production data. GM's IT transformation doesn't emphasize budget cuts but instead centers on delivering more value from IT, much faster."
Needless to say, this would be a gamble at any large enterprise, but for GM, with its recent emergence from bankruptcy and government bailouts, it's incredibly daring. Mott seems to be intending to do all of the things that we've been saying IT leaders should do; he wants IT to enable real value creation for GM, not just be a kind of internal utility where "75% of the people are spending their time trying to make sure the same thing happens today that happened yesterday." At the same time, however, the supporting infrastructure does have to perform pretty flawlessly, or the whole project could come crashing down. Murphy concludes his article by calling attention to, "what Mott's grand transformation doesn't address: What GM will do with its faster, more effective IT operation if this overhaul works. Can GM use analytics to better forecast sales or better read changing customer tastes? Would better collaboration tools help engineers and designers be more creative? Could GM and its dealers share customer insights that move more metal off the lot? Those kinds of ideas will come from working with business units on their priorities." Indeed, and this gets us to the particular role that communications professionals have in their enterprises--which almost certainly won't be making the kind of bold move GM is, but which still ultimately must take incremental steps toward the same goal: Modernizing their IT infrastructure and organization, creating a rock-solid basis for applications and business processes whose exact nature and needs will be determined by the business units, in consultation with IT. And if you're a communications pro who's been around for a few years, you should be encouraged that you'll be part of this process--15 years ago, if you were a telecom person, you'd have been relegated to that class of people who make sure the same thing happened today as happened yesterday. Now, as a communications/collaboration specialist, you're an integral part of making big IT projects pay off. Unless you work for GM, you'll be on the outside looking in at this process as it plays out, but it'll be well worth all of our time to follow Randy Mott and his team as they take on this huge challenge. It'd also be worth some time to go through the same process, at least as a thought experiment, for your own organization—what would you do? Then think about how you'd do it. Then think about what you can start doing now to take your own incremental steps toward the goal that Chris Murphy concludes his article with.
Needless to say, this would be a gamble at any large enterprise, but for GM, with its recent emergence from bankruptcy and government bailouts, it's incredibly daring.
Mott seems to be intending to do all of the things that we've been saying IT leaders should do; he wants IT to enable real value creation for GM, not just be a kind of internal utility where "75% of the people are spending their time trying to make sure the same thing happens today that happened yesterday." At the same time, however, the supporting infrastructure does have to perform pretty flawlessly, or the whole project could come crashing down.
Murphy concludes his article by calling attention to, "what Mott's grand transformation doesn't address: What GM will do with its faster, more effective IT operation if this overhaul works. Can GM use analytics to better forecast sales or better read changing customer tastes? Would better collaboration tools help engineers and designers be more creative? Could GM and its dealers share customer insights that move more metal off the lot? Those kinds of ideas will come from working with business units on their priorities."
Indeed, and this gets us to the particular role that communications professionals have in their enterprises--which almost certainly won't be making the kind of bold move GM is, but which still ultimately must take incremental steps toward the same goal: Modernizing their IT infrastructure and organization, creating a rock-solid basis for applications and business processes whose exact nature and needs will be determined by the business units, in consultation with IT.
And if you're a communications pro who's been around for a few years, you should be encouraged that you'll be part of this process--15 years ago, if you were a telecom person, you'd have been relegated to that class of people who make sure the same thing happened today as happened yesterday. Now, as a communications/collaboration specialist, you're an integral part of making big IT projects pay off.
Unless you work for GM, you'll be on the outside looking in at this process as it plays out, but it'll be well worth all of our time to follow Randy Mott and his team as they take on this huge challenge. It'd also be worth some time to go through the same process, at least as a thought experiment, for your own organization—what would you do? Then think about how you'd do it. Then think about what you can start doing now to take your own incremental steps toward the goal that Chris Murphy concludes his article with.
