Delivering Business Value with It at Hefty Hardware

As easy as it would be to say there is no effectiveness between the business and IT, I think this is a somewhat shortsighted perspective. Jenny clearly has an understanding of the needs of the business and how IT functions and may be able to help bridge the gap between these two departments. At the end of the case study it is clear that Farzad recognizes there are shortcomings as well, and appears to be willing to work to change and enhance the relationship between the two areas of the organization. It seems to me that the current management structure may be to blame for many of the shortcomings - it may be fine to bring technical gurus into meetings with the business side of the organization, but if their manager is not able to maintain a clear direction for the discussion, and spell out to the IT staff why talking about 3G and 4G, or security, is a waste of time for the meeting there is clearly a disconnect. Additionally, the information regarding CIOs changing with some amount of regularity indicates that an effective CIO has not been put in place - it seems as if they are generally too technical, and unable to see the forest through the trees (as it were) as far as cooperating with the business. While the structure itself is a shortcoming of IT, the fact that individuals who are both tech and business savvy have not been put into managerial positions is a failing of the business side of the organization. When putting together the structure for ANY departments, it is important to make sure that individuals are in place who can manage relationships and work with other departments and the business as a whole to make sure high level objectives are being met by specific