NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Franconia, NH, United States, 11/12/2006 - The loss of competitive advantage from IT may not be entirely due to its commoditization. It is starting to become clear that at least some of the responsibility lies with business activities taking place outside of the control of IT.

The commoditization of IT is changing the IT/business relationship in demanding ways according to a recent report written by industry expert Hank Marquis and published by CIO Update.

Marquis, Chief Technology Officer at itSM Solutions LLC, says business must assume responsibility for their consumption of IT resources, and that IT organizational structure must shift to deliver competitive advantage. According to Mr. Marquis, “IT commoditization is changing the ground rules for IT service providers.”

Citing examples from several large IT organizations the report titled “The Rise of Shadow IT” claims that in many businesses today IT users and knowledge-workers create and modify their IT infrastructures using so-called plug-and-play IT products.

“These commodity IT products are now so easy to use, cheap, and powerful that business users themselves can and do perform much of the work traditionally done by IT”, says Marquis, “But they do it without the planning and wider view into the ramifications of their actions provided by IT this often results in disastrous consequences.”

Aside from the opportunity costs and operational losses resulting from this uncontrolled plug-and-play free-for-all, Marquis reports that many companies are missing out on the competitive advantage potential that harnessing commodity IT delivers.

All is not lost however, for Marquis further describes how within this disturbing new reality lie both the seeds of competitive advantage and a viable model for 21st century IT.

If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Hank Marquis, please call or email Tammy Lyons.

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