Gartner Says At Least 75 Percent of IT Organizations Will Change Their Role and 10 Percent of IT Organizations Will Be Disbanded by 2011

Analysts Examine The Future of The IT Organization During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 17-21, in Orlando

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., October 17, 2005 - IT organizations are in a period of radical change. By 2011 at least 75 percent of IT organizations will change their role, at least 10 percent will be disbanded and 10 percent more will be relegated to commodity status, according to Gartner Inc.

The maturation of traditional applications of technology, the growing role of outsourcing and the greater penetration of technology into all aspects of business are driving this change. Gartner analysts discussed the future for IT organizations and IT management today at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, which is taking place here October 17 through 21.

"A new organization type is emerging - one that will take the lead on information and process," said John Mahoney, chief of research for IT Services & Management at Gartner. "While it will grow from an IT base, the primary focus of the new organization will be business transformation and strategic assets of information and process. When mature, it may no longer be identified as an IT organization."

As technology becomes more pervasive and more critical to the routine operations and strategic goals of most business, its contribution will come under greater scrutiny, whether it produces good results or bad. Businesses that master technology exploitation will recognize that success, but those that fail will blame technology accordingly. Gartner analysts said that by 2011, IT contribution will be cited in the top three success factors by at least half of the top performing businesses, while IT barriers will be cited in the top three failure factors by at least half of the lowest performers. This trend will have a major influence on the role and organization of IT and on IT leaders.

Gartner analysts predict that IT organizations in 2011 will have 20 percent less people, 40 percent less in-house technology roles and double the number of information, process and business roles compared to 2005. This parallels the evolving role of IT leadership that Gartner has identified, in which the strategic IT leadership role will split into business technology and business network leaders. IT could also be embedded in business as a pervasive commodity that is managed by business executives as part of their regular roles. In this case, IT would typically be sourced as part of a broader business process.

"There remains controversy about the extent to which IT can, should or will take and be trusted with leadership of business processes and information," Mr. Mahoney said. "In some cases, those roles will arise from outside the IT organization and the entity will then be obliged to absorb many of the strategic and architectural roles formerly played by the IT organization."

However, the evolution is not all in one direction. Some businesses are even starting to disband their IT organizations and to embed IT throughout the business. This approach could cause a disruptive backlash among some business leaders who may resist the rise of process and information architectures.

"Whatever the outcome, IT executives must identify and monitor the key external trends that will affect business technology in their enterprises," Mr. Mahoney said.