THE IT DEPARTMENT NEEDS TO ASSUME A NEW AND IMPORTANT ROLE

To support this advanced level of effort, another important transformation must
take place. The new view for members of the IT department is to move from
being a cost center to being a strategic partner and help find and validate the
improvements. They must also help manage IT investments so that there is a
credible return on those investments. Finally, they need to help the firm respond
to actual market demands through the most effective knowledge transfer system.
This means that IT projects need to be aligned with business plans and goals
and not be stand-alone efforts. Using business process management systems, IT
must take the lead in developing the inter-enterprise knowledge sharing we have
been discussing.
Within the framework we have presented, it is possible to assign responsibility
for improvement and to track the enhancements directly to the P&L statement
and the balance sheet. Doing so requires establishing the criteria of importance
to be captured, roles and responsibilities for execution, and a tracking mechanism
that verifies the benefits achieved. We have outlined a procedure for
accomplishing these objectives. In the following chapters, we will further illustrate
how actual benefits can be achieved through each level of the maturity
model. Actual case studies, supplemented with the enabling technology, will be
used to validate that what we have suggested is feasible.