Toppin predicts change in IT focus

Corporates set to modify their policies in a bid to retain competitive edge and boost shareholder value.

The shift of IT from centralised departments into business units wille edge and boost shareholder value. change again over the next two years, as organisations adopt a more project-based view of the environment.

According to Gilbert Toppin, a partner in charge of Deloitte Consulting's global programme leadership unit, the main driver for this change will be the need for companies to modify themselves in an increasingly competitive industry and boost shareholder value.

Speaking at the Fifth ABT Project Leadership Conference in San Francisco last week, Toppin said: 'The project guys are managing the creation of the enterprise of the future, and Wall Street is always keen to know what that future is. The question will be, what can technology do to bring us benefits? And organisations will regroup their project work to deal with that.'

He added that the business and software development project environments would converge in future to make this possible, but that did not mean the two would merge. Each would retain its unique identity, but the business sector would adopt more project-based ideals.

This means they will abandon their old beliefs that projects have to have fixed goals, a fixed route to achieve those goals and that benefits can only be derived from attaining previously specified targets, he said.

In future, users will work on a portfolio of projects that will change in aim as they go along and be delivered in any of a number of different ways.

Any redundancy in the project will, therefore, no longer be viewed as negative and users will always be working on something that can be used in future.

The ability to innovate will be considered a key skill and hierarchies will reduce or be eradicated as virtual teams become much more important and organisational dynamics change. The introduction of increasingly ubiquitous and easy-to-use project management tools will also facilitate change to reflect the move to a project-based environment.