Centralized authority and accountability is one way to do that. Many companies haven't solved the problems of connectivity. They have multiple networks, e-mail systems and applications operating across different parts of their operations. People and divisions can't work together as easily as at Cisco, the paradigm of interconnectivity. And then there are more forward-thinking business executives who see that IT's real value is its ability to enable changes in processes and strategy.
Centralization seems to be the answer.
But the answer to these questions isn't in re-creating a controlling IT function a la 1970. The answer lies in a two-pronged approach. First, create a standard technology platform on which the whole company operates. The first is more easily done, but requires hard thought about what needs to be standardized. The approach should consider hardware, software, processes, applications and data.