Social media is in many ways the latest way to deliver real value to businesses through technology. Many IT leaders are more familiar (and perhaps more comfortable) with other technology trends that promise to deliver value, but by working the cost side of the equation.

So, what does it take to leverage IT in an area where it’s all about fuzzy math or a leap of faith rather than hard cost savings or a concrete return on investment?

And what learnings from cost-saving initiatives can help inform our strategies? And when might that experience actually hinder our efforts to leverage this latest technology for business gain?

Recent trends in IT

Software as a service, outsourcing (global computing), virtualization, and cloud computing have impacted the way technology is used in almost any type of organization. And while each of these represent huge paradigm shifts in how IT departments are organized and how they deliver value to the business, most of it is plumbing. These are the behind-the-scenes advances in how things work, how they are setup, how they are maintained, and how they provide agility to IT department operations. And they get traction in many cases because they reduce cost – in hard dollars, staff reductions, or both.

The cost of managing cost

Efficiency, stability, and ability to scale are hallmark goals of many IT organizations. But what happens if we get too hung up on managing for these goals? Might that make IT more resistant to technologies that could potentially make IT or other departments less efficient, introduce doubt about stability (or security), or lack a clear path to scale in a controlled manner?

Does this make it harder for IT to embrace technologies that work the up-side of the business equation?

Home IT invasion

The consumerization of IT is a fancy way of saying that people in many organizations have better stuff at home than they do in the office. They start using the tools that serve their needs best. The tools that are easy to use, make information easier to access/analyze/present/share, and the methods that are most effective in establishing and maintaining relationships with customers and partners.

Many IT organizations are overwhelmed by this, as it challenges the traditional goals of efficiency (the efficiency of IT declines as it supports and trains users on more platforms) and control (the ability to have complete control over a platform). But the force of these new tools is overwhelming.

Attributes like ease of use, ubiquitous access, speed of implementation, and keeping up with the changing landscape drive end users in many organizations to bring forth consumer devices and outside software and services. And while this can add tremendous value to the business through productivity gains, agility, and the ability to collaborate more easily with clients and partners, it also adds risk.

The risk of risk aversion

It’s ingrained in most IT departments to be risk-averse. Uptime, or more accurately – avoiding downtime, has been the mantra of IT since its inception. Security breaches make front page news. Regulations require very explicit controls in many areas. And the constant search for “IT alignment” is often met with complex governance models and tough, defensive arguments required by IT at budget time. All this focus on avoiding risk can certainly fuel a conservative culture in IT. But the business risks losing out on innovations, like social media.

Or staff simply finds a way around IT, which is easier and easier to do each day.

Dot-com de ja vu

Back in the original dot-com boom, IT became front and center to the business. Heck, in a lot of cases, it became the business. Gaining a share of the web, and launching ecommerce initiatives were the new ways to start and grow businesses. And this required IT to partner with senior management, marketing, and sales in new ways so that the company could move forward in the integrated fashion that was the model of the future at the time.

Now, social media promises to be as impactful to many organizations, and IT needs to once again form strong partnerships with sales, marketing and service to meet the new challenges of business. But a risk-averse attitude won’t serve this partnership so well.

Digital and human

With more and more interactions (but not necessarily transactions) going digital, IT is in a unique position to help facilitate, structure, and inform the efforts of those who are not so accustomed to working in the world of ones and zeros. Conversely, IT can learn a lot about working in a world of business interactions, client relationships, and service that has traditionally been more about human interaction than anything else.

Photo credit: The Tuxic