Consolidating people, process and technology to bridge the great wall of operational and information technologies

Abstract

An organisations competitive advantage depends upon timely and consolidated provision of information to enable strategic decision making. Timely and consolidated provision of information requires integration of people, processes and technology across an organisation. In organisations that manage infrastructure assets such as power, water, sewerage, telecommunications or transport, timely and consolidated provision of information is impeded by a divide of operational and business people, processes and technology. Business areas such as finance may be supported by an Information Technology (IT) branch with well developed governance processes and dedicated information technology people such as network analysts, helpdesk and systems administrators. Operational areas such as power generation do not share such people, processes and technology. This chapter provides asset infrastructure organisations with recent research results indicating phases for consolidating Operational Technology (OT) and IT, identification of OT and IT divide and how to overcome the divide.