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Having an internal IT department? Why is it that hardly no one speaks positive about internal IT? They are slow, they don't understand the business, they are more expensive than the market and they aren't supportive.

Of all companies I visited in let's say, the last 5 years, I didn't came across one where the business praised IT for their pro-active, supportive and customer-oriented contribution. Of course, delivering services is often an ungrateful task, but the overall criticism IT receives is striking.

The reason may be obvious. Being responsible for IT you find yourself in an interesting dilemma. Corporate wants the IT-cost to drop, the business wants the services to improve. An almost impossible combination, causing internal fights, often won by corporate, resulting in even less responsive IT departments. The users unhappy again.

And suddenly there is SaaS, or the latest: Cloud computing. And things get really interesting. IT costs are dropping, no capital expenditure, services are delivered by specialists and deployment is done quicker than ever before. IT staff is reduced and Nicholas Carr got right, "IT doesn't matter".

How do publishers think about this development. Will SaaS work for the publishing industry? Are publishers willing to rely on an external company to service their primary process? And if so, why is it, to avoid their non-performing IT department? Or is it more comforting having in-house IT specialists?

I'm very curious where the publishing industry is going for. Would love to hear your predictions. Going for the Cloud or relying on the Geeks?

Send me your thoughts.
Hans

P.S. Forgot to mention that WoodWing can offer both ;-)