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The IT department you know today is continuing to evolve into a more userand business-focused function. Here are 10 ways IT will change in the next five years By Rick Saia
End-user departments will take more responsibility for IT work. David Foote foresees the demise of the information technology organization as we know it. The former Meta Group Inc. analyst, now a principal at Cromwell Foote Partners LLC in Stamford, Conn., says he sees a "whole clouding of what an IT worker is." IT functions - and even management - will become part of business units and other departments.
Many of the 26 IT leaders interviewed for this special report agree. "IT will no longer be a separate entity" in the organization, says Marvin W Adams, chief information and technology officer at Bank One Corp. in Chicago. "There will be a deeper integration of IT into the mainstream business as opposed to it being a service function."
Some organizations -- including The Chase Manhattan Corp. in New York - are already integrating IT functions and management. IT at Chase is governed by a "virtual CIO" called the Technology Governance Board, a group of business-unit CIOs and key technology and business managers. The board deals with all enterprisewide technology issues while bringing IT closer to each line of business. Each CIO reports directly to the head of his business unit.
"I think this model works, and I don't see us organized in a materially different way down the road," says Steven L. Sheinheit, Chase's executive vice president for systems and architecture. "CIOs will play an increasingly important role ... as they work closer and closer with the business managers."
And Foote says he sees more such integration of IT and business units below the executive level during the next five years. For example, he says, more companies will pull line managers into big technology projects such as enterprise resource planning, working side by side with full-time technical specialists for months at a time to ensure that end users get what they need to do their jobs.
But the technology itself will be centrally managed. While Chase's business-unit executives call more of their own IT shots, the technology board provides overall guidance on IT. That covers...