Introduction

**__Introduction__** In this era of rapid change and relentless advances in technology, organizations are confronted with a never ending series of challenges. Words that come to mind when thinking and talking about technology in organizations today are: innovation, change, security, retention, alignment, strategic planning, and governance. Today, with IT being a significant percentage of the capital costs of most organizations, these pressures and others lead to an ongoing struggles. Struggles not only to survive as a business, but to effectively compete in an increasingly competitive world. Today, competitive advantage can be gained with the effective use of technology, but the technology itself is not sufficient to lead organinzations to the goals that they must achieve in an increasingly complex and competitive world.

IT governance, once an overlooked poorly understood business requirement, has now risen to the top of mind of most organizations, CEO"s, and CEO"s. As they have watched their spend on IT continue to increase, and as web enabled technology and the needs of an increasingly sophisticated and inpatient customer base continue to increase, CIO"s and organizations are being challenged as they have never been before. Organizations and their IT departments are also having to look at themselves and realize that the stodgy, non-customer service oriented IT organizations of the past, are being forced to remake themselve as their internal and external customers demand increasing levels of service. In the past poor customer service may have been tolerated, but with the increasing capability of the internet coupled with global communications technology, these levels of service do not have to be tolerated, as outsourcing or off shoring can be brought to bear. An additional thing that most organizations have realized is that the members of the Board either at the Board level, or with an IT steering committee must be involved and understand IT in a way that they have not had to in the past.

Our project required us to talk with managers of organizations and directors involved in IT to get their perspective of IT in their organization. We will share the results of those interviews, as well as an analysis of two interesting cases that serve as important examples of the challenges, promises, and capabilities of IT in organizations today.