IT In Danger Of Being Marginalized, Accenture Warns

5 Reasons The CIO And CFO Should Be Best Friends

Shadow IT is an old story at this point. But a survey from Accenture Strategy, a unit of Accenture consulting that helps companies adjust their business strategies to cope with digital disruption, aims to shine a new light on the topic.

The Accenture survey conducted earlier this year of 1,800 CIOs, CTOs, and C-level decision makers on the status of the IT department found that 77% of respondents said, "IT lacked the skill sets" to act as a service provider itself, as Accenture authors Mazen Baroudi and Matthew Taylor stated in their report, "IT Is Dead. Long Live IT!"

Like other surveys, including one by rival consulting firm Ernst & Young, the Accenture results showed that reliance on IT to originate technology was decreasing and that business decision-makers are showing an increasing willingness to go around IT and initiate an external technology service.

[See 9 Ways IT Can Ruin Its Relationship With the Business.]

The Accenture report also pointed out that even shadow IT implementers sense the risks inherent in bypassing the existing IT organization.

But there is hope -- if there's some reinvention.

Baroudi and Taylor recommended that IT become more of a service provider itself, and act as a broker for the services sought by the lines of business. However, IT will have to nurture its own disrupters to succeed in such a transition, they noted.

"In this new role (as a service broker), IT can not only protect the business but also help it achieve greater outcomes," the authors wrote.

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