With this issue of Cutter Benchmark Review, we return our focus to the strategic role of the IS function and to issues of innovation. We do so on the basis of the recognition that it is the norm today for the IT shop to be, or have the potential to be, a boundary-spanning function. Organizational theory has long recognized that within the firm there are areas whose focus is mostly internal (e.g., manufacturing and operations) and others whose role is to connect the organization to its outside environment, exchanging information and resources (e.g., R&D, marketing).

The IT shop has traditionally served mostly an internal role, dating back to the days of the electronic data processing department where individuals in white lab coats held the key to a secure area where the company computers were housed. Much has changed since then with IS professionals today, more often than not, holding the virtual key to the firm's store and many of the delivery and support services offered by the firm. Without going too far in fact, we at CBR have an issue in development that focuses on the use of technology to communicate with customers. Along these lines, we also recently produced an issue on open innovation (Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2007) that this month's installment nicely complements. More generally, IT today plays a key role in enabling the boundary-spanning functions of the organization. I'm sure nowadays, since the proliferation of blogs, social networking sites, and the like, the public relations (PR) department, perhaps the epitome of the boundary-spanning function, couldn't imagine hiring a PR person who is not well versed in the use of IT to enable the department's work in these new areas.

Beyond the proliferating examples of other areas becoming more and more dependent on IT, to understand the evolution of the IT shop into a boundary-spanning organizational function we need to focus on the role that IT plays today in the value proposition of the firm, both from a product and a service standpoint. There are many examples here, but let me highlight one that stems from my most recent case on a growing startup called TripIt. TripIt is a travel organizer, an agent of the traveler, not a travel agent. Thus, TripIt is not a booking site but rather a place you go to when you need to manage your trip. At TripIt (check it out if you travel a lot, you will thank me!), IT is evidently embedded in both the value proposition and the support around such proposition, much of this support being increasingly provided by other TripIt users as the firm grows its social networking component. Thus, IT issues, challenges, and most of all opportunities are inseparable from product, operations, marketing, and delivery considerations. TripIt is, of course, a cutting-edge Web 2.0 San Francisco startup focused on providing an innovative information service, but with the growing role of software in all organizations and the fact that the Internet today is a normal part of life, TripIt is more of a harbinger of things to come that should be studied, rather than an oddity to be dismissed.

The increasing boundary-spanning role of the IT shop brings many opportunities, but the increasing pressure put on IS professionals to engage with the environment is a mixed blessing. More importantly perhaps, just because historically there has been a move toward IT as more of a boundary spanner, it does not mean that this trend applies to (or is optimal for) your own organization. While the trend is real, how quickly your IT group should adapt, and how, requires attention. Thus, an installment of CBR that can help us understand the advantages and disadvantages of this shift and equip you with the tools to identify the optimal orientation of your own IT shop is both timely and useful.

To help us understand and navigate the increasingly public role of IS, we have enlisted the help of four contributors who have been part of this ongoing shift. Our academic perspective is provided by Pierre Berthon, the Clifford F. Youse Chair of Marketing at Bentley College (USA); Leyland F. Pitt, Professor of Marketing in the Segal Graduate School of Business at Simon Fraser University (Canada); and Richard T. Watson, the J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet Strategy at the University of Georgia (USA). Pierre, Leyland, and Rick have a combined 58 years tenure in academia, spanning both marketing and IS. Our view from the field comes courtesy of Christine Davis, a Fellow of the Cutter Business Technology Council and a Senior Consultant with Cutter's Business-IT Strategies and Enterprise Risk Management & Governance practices. Christine served as a senior executive at both Texas Instruments and Raytheon.

Pierre, Leyland, and Rick begin their contribution with a model of the IS function as a boundary spanner. They then borrow from marketing thinking and introduce a framework that drives their analysis of the survey results: the strategic archetypes model. With the framework solidly in place, Pierre, Leyland, and Rick apply it to the IS function, evaluate the survey results in this context, and draw conclusions. Christine's contribution draws significantly from her experience at Texas Instruments. She tackles the survey results in systematic fashion and focuses mostly on issues of process. Her anecdotes and experiences are full of lessons that remain applicable today. Christine concludes her piece by coming full circle to the role of the IT group in the planning process, particularly focusing on the assets that we bring to the table. This is one of the most conceptual and high-level issues we have produced in a while, and I think you will find it to be a very useful mind teaser. While we have less tangible guidelines than we typically seek to produce in CBR, I think that you will find that this installment helps you step back and take a broad view of the role of IT at your organization. In and of itself, that's a useful exercise.