Photo by Jennifer Ortiz

In his article, It's Time To Occupy IT, AIIM CEO and president John Mancini examines the evolution of "Systems of Engagement," the social technologies that are transforming how customers and employees relate to and interact with companies.

Surviving the disruption that transformation entails is a matter of when, rather than if, a given organization embraces the change. But as Mancini points out, that transformation will require a "new breed" of IT professional:

"While addressing this kind of challenge requires technical skills, it also requires process and customer acumen more often found in the business than in our IT departments. It requires a new type of information professional, whose expertise includes technical and domain knowledge, but who also has an idea of how the pieces of a process that spans the worlds of Systems of Record and Systems of Engagement should fit together. Gartner estimates that the demand for this new breed of information professional will grow by 50 percent by 2015."

Though Mancini makes no reference to the title, the skills he desribes are those of the IT architect.

While the specific definition of the role remains fodder for seemingly endless discussion and debate on various social networks and forums, the fact remains that the skills required for success in the evolving world of IT will increasingly involve a deep understanding of how all the pieces fit together.