"So what does an IT strategy mean to you and furthermore, do you really need one?"

I tend to put the word "service" in between IT and Strategy and think each type of service provider (internal business unit, internal shared, external (Cloud, Outsourcing, etc.)) needs to have one. Corporate strategy is the major input to the individual service strategies and the link between it and the various IT Service Strategies available in the organization's supply or value chain, is IT Governance. Consequently, I guess I don't tend to think in terms of a single IT strategy, that is separate from corporate strategy, unless one service provider can make the business case that they have the capacity and portfolio to handle it all, at the best price and with the highest level of quality. Realistically, I think it is wise for each service provider to do a sober assessment of themselves and their capabilities and carve out a piece of the business that plays to their competitive advantage, whatever that may be, and to have in place the functions and processes that demonstrate good governance. They have to realize they are in a competition.

Thanks for the interesting topic.

I like your thoughts on ERP. One gets a sense that their business model can't last much longer.

Myles, the public Cloud vendors will have to provide SLAs with teeth, a more mature pricing model and a wider catalog of services, service unit types, towers, etc. to replace private Clouds or outsourcing, would be my guess. At the end of the transformation they will look very much like an outsourcer, selling Cloud based services. However, the outsourcing vendors may beat them to it.

The shared service groups I referred to below are being called business services. It seems they are providing a sort of combo BPO/ITO service. They in turn are creating their own supply chain, which in some cases means they are letting out large outsourcing contracts. Maybe they are the new IT department? Someone has to govern the outsourcing and Cloud vendor agreements. 

This presents a very interesting vision. I have no idea if it is a trend or not but at the moment I am seeing more internal shared services and less IT department. The move is often associated with an "IT as a Business" strategy. They are still outsourcing, but the agreements have changed to where every service is usage based, so there are a lot of ARC-RRC multitier pricing schemes. It is as if they want a Cloud like or utility like service arrangement, but probably can't get it from the Cloud vendors themselves.

The traditional ERP vendors still seem to have a strong hold but there is lots of griping about their business model, which the ERP vendors seem to be either impervious or indifferent to. Maybe it is because they believe organizations still don’t have any alternatives and the idea of building these things themselves has been beaten out of them?