Who Competes with IT?

In his CIO post Who are the IT Department's "competitors"? Chris Potts makes reference to a global survey that tried to pin down what differentiates successful IT organisations [within companies] from their competitors. Chris picks up on who the IT department's competitors might be. This I feel is a very interesting question. I go along with his points that the competitors include:

• external suppliers
• IT departments in other companies - used by the CFO to beat their IT function down on budget.

I would also add:

• The Finance function - often there is a political friction between the two departments
• The Marketing function - e-commerce and now social networking look set to move the axis of IT power out of the IT function.
• The IT industry - which is creating technologies that are likely over time to obviate the need for technologists in end-user organisations
• Anything else worthy of capital investment - The CEO needs to decide whether his dollar will yield more value lying in a savings account or would it be best to invest in the IT function. 

With a bit more thought I am sure the list could be extended.