We’ve all been there… waiting weeks or months for corporate IT to respond to urgent business needs, watching opportunities slip away while stuck in the quicksand of enterprise procurement processes. In manufacturing and engineering firms, where speed to market can make or break million-dollar deals, this traditional IT bottleneck isn’t just frustrating. It’s costly! But what if I told you that the solution isn’t to fight shadow IT, but to embrace it? While this might sound like heresy to traditional CIOs, our experience shows that properly managed departmental IT initiatives can become a powerful engine for innovation and growth.
Our President, Nathan Stuller, shares his reflection on the frustrations he hears from clients.
Let me share a perspective that might seem counterintuitive: allowing departments to work with their own chosen vendors can actually lead to better outcomes than forcing everything through corporate IT channels.
Here’s why this works:
Domain Expertise Matters More Than Technical Skills
Global IT departments often focus on general technical requirements and staff augmentation. However, our experience shows that domain expertise is far more valuable. Take our work developing a 3D web-based CAD system. This wasn’t just a technical challenge, it required deep understanding of engineering workflows and processes. The result? We reduced drawing lead times from two weeks to under 10 minutes, with an estimated 1,000% ROI.
Departmental Innovation Drives Accountability
When departments can choose their own solutions and vendors, they take direct responsibility for their costs and results. This creates a natural alignment between innovation and bottom-line impact. For example, our engineering job booking system project demonstrated how departmental-level software solutions could reduce sales team follow-up time and increase customer-facing activities, leading to a 900% ROI.
The Right Balance: Control and Facilitation
The key is finding the middle ground. Corporate IT should:
- Set security and integration standards
- Provide support when departments need it
- Enable rather than restrict innovation
- Focus on enterprise-wide systems and infrastructure
Making It Work
The most successful organizations are those that:
- Allow departments to select specialized vendors with relevant domain expertise
- Enable departments to innovate their own processes and tools
- Maintain corporate IT oversight without creating unnecessary barriers
- Focus corporate IT resources on enterprise-wide needs
The future of IT isn’t about controlling every technical decision. It’s about creating an environment where innovation can flourish while maintaining appropriate governance and support. When done right, this approach can lead to significant improvements in efficiency, cost reduction, and business growth.
Remember: The goal isn’t to eliminate corporate IT’s role, but to transform it from a gatekeeper to an enabler of departmental success. This shift can unlock tremendous value across the organization while maintaining necessary controls and standards.
