Empowered BT Redefines The Traditional IT Archetypes

The empowered era has transformed the role of IT within the enterprise. Five years ago, we identified three archetypes for the IT organization: Solid Utility, Trusted Supplier, and Partner Player. But in the emerging world of empowered business technology (BT), the IT org's traditional role as an order taker is long gone, and few IT shops continue to operate as Solid Utilities. As a result, two archetypes exist for the IT group today: aligned IT and empowered BT. Many IT groups continue to operate as the aligned IT archetype — service providers to the enterprise, for which the distinction between a utility and a supplier has essentially disappeared. But the empowered BT archetype plays a much more strategic role, operating as a technology-savvy partner to the rest of the corporation. By understanding their archetype, CIOs can better articulate their group's strategy, dictate tradeoffs, and achieve their goal of running IT more like a business. Executive management's expectations continue to dictate which archetype the CIO has to deliver, but CIOs can drive toward the empowered BT archetype by focusing on business value delivered through the overall maturity of their organization's strategy, governance, structure, and innovation.