Geek Squad move is a peek into the future of IT for SMBs

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy announced recently that it is extending its Geek Squad computer help services to small businesses and other partners. In its own way, this move says a lot about the future of IT and IT’s role in the enterprise.

The Best Buy move follows news of less than optimistic financials and of the imminent close of 50 of its so-called big-box stores. The company is feeling more and more pressure from online retailers, and at the same time it’s struggling to improve its customer service at brick-and-mortar outlets.

Best Buy’s Geek Squad organization makes up more than 10% of its employees and is part of its long-term growth strategy. The Geek Squad partner program for SMBs will allow some companies to outsource many basic functions of their IT operations while enabling remaining IT staff to focus on core business issues. This is a very small segment of the industry now, but it will be growing over the next few years.

And this is a small picture of what large companies will confront, if they have not already. The functions of IT are being commoditized on the one hand and becoming strategic on the other. Increasingly, a big part of the role of the CIO is managing that transition without stalling innovation and growth.