Milind Govekar

For those IT professionals at work in the field, the pressure has never been so intense. They are tasked with providing constant availability and improving quality of service while reducing costs. To reach the top level where IT becomes a trusted business partner requires high levels of IT maturity, with success in planning, managing and execution.

Consider that there are six stages to IT infrastructure and operations (I &O) maturity, outlined below:

Level 0 Little or no focus on IT infrastructure and operations.

Level 1 Taking action to gain operational control and visibility.

Level 2 Moving to a managed environment to become more customer-centric and increase customer satisfaction.

Level 3 Gaining efficiencies and service quality through standardisation, policy development and proactive, cross-departmental processes.

Level 4 Managing IT like a business; customer-focused; proven, competitive and trusted IT service provider.

Level 5 Trusted partner to the firm for increasing the value and competitiveness of business processes, as well as the company as a whole.

Gartner predicts that by the end of 2012, fewer than 14 per cent of large organisations will have achieved level four or above. While this is an improvement on 2007, when four per cent of large firms had achieved this level of I&O maturity, they must set goals at the level they need to achieve to best support the business.

However, the majority face a long road ahead. Those occupying the three lower maturity levels must keep improving their maturity to secure additional funding and gain the trust that they are able to effectively deliver services that the business needs, at acceptable service levels.

Milind Govekar is Gartner research vice president and is co-chair of the Gartner Data Center Summit 2008, at the RAI conference Centre, Amsterdam, 21-23 October.

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