Delivering the keynote address at the BMC Software Forum in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Tom Bishop, the company's chief technology officer, said IT shops need to implement best practice IT models, deliver ROI and be geared to respond to rapid change.

Blueprints will achieve this, he said, along with business process improvements.

"We are the only industry that gets away with spending lots of money buying lots of equipment, then buying lots more tools and equipment to tell us what it is we bought; that is crazy," Bishop said.

"IT should evolve like other mature engineering disciplines, building specifications and blueprints for designing systems."

Bishop said about 15 percent of IT shops he is working with today have been tasked with finding new ways to create business opportunities. Using process frameworks like ITIL will enable such best practice blueprints, he said.