As soon as the IT Leader in a mid-sized organization understands their critical role for kick-starting Digital Transformation (DX), the next question for many is: which project is a good starting point to get the ball rolling?

Currently I feel out of control.

I am working insane hours and am still not getting to everything. The number of tasks actually keeps growing and I get a knot in my stomach just looking at my to-do list.

I would love to know what the healthy balance is for an IT Manager to manage daily tasks and longer-term projects without being overwhelmed by info, requests and duties?

I currently am an IT Manager in my organisation, but seeing the growth of the company, I predict that we will need a CIO and/or CTO within the next 18 months.

I want to make sure that I will be the logical choice for this position when the time comes, but how do I go about it?

Learning by doing may have been good enough until now ... But is it still?

In any management role you do not only have to oversee that everything in your department runs smoothly regarding systems, but you are also responsible for the performance of your staff.

When targets aren't met and this can be attributed to some of your staff, you probably find yourself asking questions like: Why are they under-performing? How do I get enough action from my team? What do I do when individual achievements are not up to par? How do I keep people motivated and encouraged without dictating what needs to be done? Or is it time to part ways?

Agile in general and SCRUM in particular have helped many a software development team to become the heroes of the company by reliably delivering development projects.

But can these methodologies be applied to general IT and Business Technology projects as well?

Most IT Leaders in mid-sized businesses come from a technology background and as such are most at home when they can do tangible projects and keep the lights on.

This is a full-time job after all.

On the other hand, more and more are getting painfully aware that their organisation will need to look at Digital Transformation (DX) and there is usually nobody better placed to start the conversation than the IT Leader.

But where to start and especially how to step out of the comfort zone?

In some mid-sized businesses IT has developed unique insights and services that could, in theory at least, be productised and sold to existing customers as a value-add, thereby creating revenue from a function that has traditionally only operated as a cost-centre.

But just because this is possible and usually puts a smile on the faces of business executives, doesn’t necessarily mean it is a good idea. 

How should the IT leader think about and approach such an opportunity?

IT Managers and CIOs have become masters at managing complexity.

This has not escaped the notice of senior business leaders who sense an opportunity to use this skill for managing some of the other, non-core business functions such as facilities, maintenance and others.

It is quite easy to see how this could save costs for the business, but what does it mean for the IT leader who wants to grow?

IT procurement is the series of activities and procedures in a business for acquiring information technology (IT) hardware, software and services. It involves both strategic and administrative responsibilities and a frequent question of IT leaders in mid-sized businesses is who in the business should handle which parts of the process.

Due to the complexity of making IT purchases, the obvious answer is to keep this within IT and away from the central procurement function. But is this really the right choice when one considers that procurement in general is a fairly well-defined process and requires many other competencies which are not specific to IT at all?