IT Employment

Basically ,they are looking to fire people and cut costs.
I have been around quite a few and it ain't pretty.

I've previously been at a mid-sized employer that decided to go ahead and bring in all the IS/IT functions into one umberlla. I am currently at a large-sized employer that still has different functions underneath relatively autonomous silos.

From being in both situations, I can tell you that whether or not centralizing IT is a positive move really depends on why it is being done. Is it the precursor to 'right-sizing' IT (hey, Bob and Joe both do the same job...why not let go Joe, and save some coin)? Is it to leverage better vendor deals and standardize the company's infrastructure? Or, is it just some guy's way to make himself look more important on the org chart by having more people underneath his little box?

At my previous employer, they had good reason/intent in centralizing It, and it really did help the firm. Here, they have good reasons not to integrate, and things are working out very well.

So, in short, I'd say it isn't so much the setup that is important, but the motive and thought behind the setup that really counts.

If you guys do decide to re-org, hope it goes well for you!

the motives behind this are cost based, not quality. There can be improvements, but thaye are almost an accident, and there will be as many inefficiencies created as efficiencies.
Last firm I worked for that did this centralized, streamlined and then outsourced the entire thing. While this may have had some benefits, one thing that was very noticeable was the rise of DIY IT, a proliferation of internal data islands maintained by super users in order to save 'paying' the centralized IT function to do it properly.
In theory centralized IT should be more efficient and de-centralized more reactive, as far as I can see the net gain on a business level is zero minus the cost of switching, whichever way you go.

Consolidation & centralisation are current trends coupled primarily to cost savings, fact. When negotiating centralisation with the 3 divisions make sure that the process is structured in such as way that they are clear and comfortable with what they should let go of and why. Gartner has some guidelines to assist with structuring the decision process. ?Consolidating IT: How to Score the Benefits and Barriers?
Losing focus is not the idea; duplicating infrastructure however is expensive, particularly in a company with no guiding standards or architecture.
Ensure that the division targeted to handle centralised IT is properly staffed, skilled and has the required tools and defined metrics to provide a measured and managed service. Lastly make sure the ?English and Money? add up, that there is indeed a return on investment.

Centralize on your IT applications and all other functional aspects to draw the maximum (make highly available env.) out of all the available resources. (Looks like Sun is doing a great Job in this regard by providing $100 per employee kind of approach.) - Sun could be one place to look for along with the hard & soft resources.

And distribute the infrastructure geographically so that your DR plan will be in place.

-Usuf

Actually, Centralization is better apply in any IT environment as this allow maximization of both computer and human resources. Apart from the above, security-wise it allow good and proper monitoring of users of the system, it also reduces wastages of reources while in operations.Further more, users in this environment will have no alternative than to be computer literate. while in a distributed environment, too much of resources human-wise and other-wise will be involved. Although we should not forget that in any centralized IT environment, it also involved an element of distributed processing.