In the 1980s, MIS was like a priesthood and the users were the parishioners who, denied access to the holy books, had to rely on MIS to get the services they needed. Users didn't have much choice; it often seemed that you needed to sacrifice a chicken and do a silly dance before you'd get something that barely resembled what you asked for (and it was late to boot). Then the PC entered the scene like a blazing light of truth that freed us from the oppressive MIS presence. We were suddenly able to do our jobs. (I worked at IBM at the time and was one of the folks driving the internal revolt, which ended with us basically firing MIS).
Even back then, users (myself included) didn't want to become MIS, although that's what happened. We just wanted to be able to personally craft our solutions and found it easier to learn the necessary PC skills with Lotus 1-2-3, DisplayWrite and Condor (one of many database programs) than to get MIS to do what we wanted.
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While today's IT systems are far more agile, they also require unique skills and don't give users the control they want and need. That said, the services the users buy outside the purview of IT are almost identical; developers simply wrapped these services and applications around mush more user-friendly interfaces.
That's exactly what MyIT is: a user-friendly wrapper for IT services. With it, users are more likely to use an internal service and work within the IT framework and less likely to use an external service and bypass IT. In effect, MyIT may be the best weapon to assure that IT remains relevant and current.
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The problem that MyIT addresses, if properly implemented, is one of customer satisfaction. Part of the deployment process for this tool, or any like it, should be a way to monitor that satisfaction. That way, the tool can be updated and modified to address the internal customer needs-and to ensure that IT isn't again caught on the wrong side of a trend.
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The real benefit of MyIT may be improved employee morale both inside and outside IT. When you know your customers-you know what they want and you know you are delivering what they want-both you and your customers are far happier.
Most IT vendors should have a MyIT-type offering. The ones that don't will likely wonder where their customers went.
