One of the big debates raginig within many organizations right now is whether to centralize or decentralize IT. Some companies are consolidating services such as help desks into one location and then simply serving all other locations remotely. This can save costs and make efficient use of resources. Other companies are taking IT services (help desk, admins, and developers) and assigning them to business units, reporting to department managers/directors rather than IT managers and executives. This can make business units a lot happier and cause IT pros to be much less isolated.

As part of last week’s discussion of IT department atmosphere, a thread emerged about centralization vs. decentralization. Join the discussion to add your perspective on the following questions:

— When does decentralization make sense and when is centralization more appropriate?
— What IT services are best decentralized?
— Is your IT department more centralized or more decentralized and how well does the structure work?