IT Organization Focuses on Costs, Products

The IT organization at Microsoft, which in many ways is similar to IT organizations in other large companies, could prove a useful benchmark for IT managers. In addition, after making changes that brought Microsoft’s IT, consulting services, and product support groups into the same organization, the company is developing programs that will provide Microsoft consultants and some select customers with direct access to expertise in the Microsoft IT group. Such access could help customers run their Windows-based IT infrastructures better and help Microsoft showcase the business benefits derived from Microsoft products, which could drive adoption of those products.

Microsoft’s IT organization supports the technology needs of the company’s approximately 89,000 full-time employees, vendors, and contractors and runs its global technology infrastructure and business applications. Adding to these responsibilities, the group (formerly known as the Operations and Technology Group and recently renamed Microsoft IT) also plays a pivotal role in the product research and development process, funneling requirements and technical issues into product development teams and gating product release via a quality assurance process that company employees refer to as “eating our own dog food.”