Agree with you entirely Steve.

I am self employed and all my work comes from gaining quickly an understanding of the Clients business and then coupling that with my IT knowledge to find and or develop the most appropriate solution. Because the results are typically good I remain connected with the business to provide further strategic advise. A number of Clients have me in on the weekly or monthly Management meeting. I will point out my initial training was as an accountant, this understanding and a number of years as a manager have help give me a greater understanding of the business processes.

In my past life as an employee (IT Manager), I was often referred to as the person that did understand all the business processes. I attribute this to the fact that IT is what ties a lot of different departments together, so it only requires a little effort from the IT Guy to gain a good overall view or understanding.

I believe IT are ideally placed to help drive business, certainly not solely, but isn't all business a team effort?