Information is one of the key components of any information technology (IT) organisation (I would personally argue it’s more important than the technology aspect). Two facts disturb me when one looks at IT’s role in the financial crisis:

• We have been pushing data warehouse and business intelligence technology for years, saying   these technologies allow proactive decision making and spot trends and changes in an organisation’s underlying financial health.
• The finance industry usually spends more on IT than any other industry.

This being the case, if business intelligence (BI) actually does what we’ve pitched it to do, shouldn’t have one of these fancy analytical tools spotted the underlying roots of the financial crisis in at least one major bank, and perhaps raised some red flags in advance of the global meltdown? Is IT partially culpable for either not looking at the right data or selling a bill of goods on the basis of BI? Where was the intelligence missing in BI?

Greed by a wide ranging list of parties is certainly the primary cause of this crisis, and I am certainly not suggesting that bank CIOs to share the flak that other titans of industry had to take. However I don’t think IT can stand in the corner and say, “Hey, we just provide the tools, don’t blame us.”

If IT is truly a critical component of the business, then we must take some responsibility for positive and negative business events. Rather than running for the hills, savvy CIOs should ask their C-suite counterparts how IT might have raised an early warning, and determine what types of systems should be prioritised in the future. If you can truly pitch IT as an entity that might prevent future incidents like this, IT suddenly becomes a major C-suite player. What many CIOs have suggested is the key to IT’s success for the past several decades, but it’s time they took some blame for this crisis.

Patrick Gray is the founder and President of Prevoyance Group. A recently rehabilitated tech nerd, Patrick possesses the unique ability to comfortably talk shop with the folks in the server room, and also navigate the boardroom with ease.