There is much buzz about the need for IT to view the business as the customer, allowing business needs to drive IT innovation. But according to Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Helen Pukszta, an exception must be made when handling the strategic aspects of IT.

"Effective business IT innovation requires a clear mandate to identify and pursue those IT investments that strengthen and enable a competitive advantage or ensure, at a minimum, competitive parity. It is a mandate that can originate in only one place: the CEO's office.

"Without this mandate, there is a lack of authority and ownership of that crucial inception and incubation process that leads to recommendations for optimal and strategy-consistent IT investments. It is not the role of the IT investment steering committee to engage in preliminary assessments that might lead to winning IT-based initiatives" says Pukszta.

Rather than viewing the entire business organization as a vague customer, in the context of business IT innovation, the board of directors, the CEO, and the IT investment steering committee are the only significant customers to whom the leader of this function should be accountable.

Pukszta concludes, "Once the IT investment is approved and initiated, the circle of customers grows substantially, now including business sponsors, stakeholders, and individual end users. But although business IT innovation will draw upon input from the entire organization, its focus, unlike that of many other IT functions and activities, is not exactly to serve the business community. It is to serve the strategic and competitive needs of the organization. The distinction may seem subtle, yet, I believe, it is significant."

To request the Cutter Consortium Business-IT Strategies E-Mail Advisor in which these comments were made, or to schedule an interview with Helen Pukszta, contact .

More information about Helen Pukszta is available at http://www.cutter.com/meet-our-experts/hpbio.html.

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