The business argument always wins, claims ESG analyst

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When decisions are made in a company, the business and application people's argument will always win out over the infrastructure specialists.

In an energetic and honest presentation, Steve Duplessie, founder of analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), conceded that however right the infrastructure side of a business may feel, it will lose out to those looking at the business and applications side.

“The business and applications side do not want to deal with us,” he said. “They might like us, even want a beer with us on a personal level, but we are the people who say no. We have to say I cant, it will take three months or three weeks... we have to say it because we are the protectors of our digital landscape.”

Duplessie said that those who run the infrastructure have a different mission to those who run the business and applications side, which ultimately causes clashes.

“The mission of IT ops is to keep the lights on... its not glorious and is often painful... but it is damn right hard,” he said.

“[However] a CIO's mission is don't do anything that will create co-dependencies which in turn will increase time to deployment. We have an antibody at odds with us, with more power both politically and sometimes economically.”

He added: “Our world is about be cheaper, consolidate, utilise, be more effective at what you do. That mission is directly at odds with go faster.”

So do the infrastructure IT guys achieve their mission if the business side always wins out? Duplessie thinks it is as simple as communication.

“99 per cent of these [problems] can be solved through conversation. We don't need high price consultants to come in and do this," he said.

“We should be on the same overall mission. It is our responsibility to show the other group how our brilliance can help them.”

The key, he claimed, is to keep the business side better informed on what the infrastructure side can do rather than keeping it to themselves.

Duplessie concluded: “Just tell the truth, or lie, but do it with their view in mind.”

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