In his Forbes Technovation column, Peter High examines how RIM missed the boat on the consumerization of IT
by Peter High, published on Forbes.com
11-08-2012
With the election in our rear view mirror, it is interesting to think about all that has come to pass over the last four years. Beyond the politics, however, I am reminded of how President Obama’s first election brought about perhaps the greatest product endorsement in history. Though Presidents are not supposed to endorse one product or company over another or appear in advertisements for any company, on January 7, 2009, days before his inauguration and in the face of having to give up his personal phone for security reasons as his predecessors had done, the President-elect said, “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands.” This was a product that was of such great use to him, and represented his connection to the life he was leaving, that he would force his Executive Office of the President (EOP) to change protocol so that he could keep his cherished device. This is the sort of endorsement that companies dream about.
The truth is, as of early 2009, many business executives agreed that their BlackBerries were indispensable. RIM had done a wonderful job of securing their devices, making them business-ready, while also focusing on making BlackBerry the premier communication device. The keyboard made it ideal for emails and text messages in addition to being a robust phone. Moreover, these devices were available through a variety of carriers, so companies did not necessarily need to change plans in order to purchase the latest and greatest devices from RIM.
On June 28, 2007, around the time Obama was crisscrossing the nation trying to secure the Democratic nomination, a different kind of phone was released with quite a hefty marketing budget, as Apple released its first iPhone. Research in Motion (RIM – the maker of the BlackBerry) dismissed this new entity as a non-rival, as the iPhone was a personal device, and not something a serious businessman or businesswomen would deign to use for work purposes, to say nothing of a president. The iPhone had all kinds of “weaknesses”. In addition to the lack of a “real” keyboard, it was only available through one carrier, and a carrier that did not have the reputation for reliable service, especially in key business communities like New York and San Francisco. Moreover, what CIO would ever let the iPhone access the company’s most sensitive data? What RIM did not realize was that this was the tipping point of what has come to be referred to as consumerization of IT.
Though CIOs feared what a device like this would mean in terms of securing the network of the company, the truth is it was often they who were the first to play around with iPhone, as CIOs are always interested in the newest technology toy to play around with. The smart ones realized that it was so easy to use that it was a way to start a conversation with the rest of the organization. If Luddite CEOs could grasp the power of using apps for everything from seeing their appointments for the day, to checking into flights, to reading news and analyst reports, they might see an application of the device to their company.
To read the remainder of the article, please visit Forbes.com.
Explore more pieces in the Technovation column here.
Buying over building — Standardizing processes across units– Two CIOs are bucking these trends for good reason
10-31-2012
The economic malaise of the last several years has led a lot of organizations to think about standardizing infrastructure and processes in order to cut costs and to run more efficiently. It has also led many IT departments to rethink their mix of homegrown systems versus those purchased from a vendor, erring more on the side of the latter than the former. However, a few companies have bucked these trends, and believe they are better positioned during good times and bad as a result.
Many companies have developed a standard around purchasing off-the-shelf solutions wherever possible, and only where necessary developing their own homegrown systems. In a recent interview with Jay Vijayan, the Vice President, IT & Business Applications of Tesla Motors, as part of the Forum on World Class IT series, Jay discussed the reasons why his team sought an alternative path to this trend. In fact, his team has reversed this trend, even developing a homegrown enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool suite. In this day and age, you will not find many executives who choose to develop their own ERP, but Vijayan explains that as he and his team looked for comparable examples of the use of standard ERP solutions, they were left wanting for a specific fit for Tesla’s needs. Recognizing that the usual suspect solutions would be formulated with average cases in mind with a variety of “bells and whistles” that would never be of use to Tesla, while making the application heavy and hard to maintain, Vijayan elected to build one for Tesla specifically. It was hard work, but since it has been up and running, it does all that his team and his business colleagues need.
(…)
Norm Fjeldheim, the CIO of Qualcomm, has bucked the standard trend, and has been successful in the process. He has chosen an iterative, agile development process in some areas, and others have relied upon the traditional waterfall method, which entails a less iterative, stricter-staged development process. Fjeldheim points out that it would be inappropriate to standardize on one method over another in his case. Moreover, he has not developed a single PMO to oversee all projects and methodology. Rather, each group associated with different divisions of the company set up their own PMOs. Fjeldheim says, “There are certain product areas that we work with that have many release dates, and where requirements change based on information gathered from customers through development. This is clearly an area where agile methods are needed. Our colleagues in Finance, for example, prefer more structure, and have relatively few releases each year. Agile is not warranted in that situation, and so we use waterfall methods for them.” It is this flexibility that creates a better partnership between IT and each of the business units with which it works.
To read the remainder of the article, please visit Peter High’s Technovation column on Forbes.com.
Savvy CIOs are getting involved beyond their own companies to sit on boards of start-ups and help their smaller external partners grow up.
10-30-2012
It is a well-worn debate: When companies identify needs that may be met by engaging vendor partners, should they turn to large, established players or small up-starts? All things being equal, most companies tend to hire the established player, as there is a perception that the risk is lower. Just as the old adage of “no one ever got fired for hiring IBM” suggests, many people think that partnering with a larger vendor will be less risky for several reasons. The larger vendor has a longer track-record. It has likely dealt with a wide array of complex customers of different sizes, and it has the financial history to suggest that it will not soon go out of business.
These rationales often hold true, but they should not necessarily win the debate in situations where the smaller companies have the better products or services. Having worked with a number of chief information officers in Silicon Valley, these executive often find that the best solutions are from start-ups. Of the CIOs I surveyed, the reasons given for pursuing smaller vendors include:
True, one cannot avoid the fact that partnerships with start-up ventures come with a higher degree of risk. It is much more likely that a start-up will fold in the medium term than it is for an IBM or an Oracle to do so. Interestingly, the CIOs of large companies may be part of the solution to this concern.
Being a CIO for a company with “Data” in the name means you need to be on the leading edge of innovation. ADP CIO, Mike Capone, fosters a culture of innovation within his team to do just that.
10-15-2012
The unemployment figures sometimes mask the fact that there is a war for IT talent in corporate America and beyond. As companies across a large number of industries have awakened to the fact that technology has a major role to play in their operations, internally and customer-facing, they have understood that solid IT resources are a must. Add to that the fact that outsourcing has stripped many IT departments of the commoditized work, meaning that the average IT employee must be of a higher quality and contribute to a higher level of value. Lastly, Silicon Valley and the tech start-up community is again white hot, and that is drawing some the best and brightest engineering talent who might otherwise choose to join IT departments.
Late last month, Mike Capone, the Global CIO of Automatic Data Processing (ADP) asked me to speak with his team about IT led innovation and to facilitate a brainstorming session with his team. The approach used was truly novel.
To provide some context, ADP is one of the last four AAA-rated companies in the United States. Its growth has been steady, and one might suspect that that would translate into a conservative culture, but in recent years, the company has developed an emphasis on innovation. Traditionally known for being the unquestioned leader in Payroll Services, ADP has transformed itself into a full Human Capital Management provider over the last decade. Well established in the Cloud before the term became fashionable, ADP now counts over 300,000 clients leveraging their internet solutions. In May of 2006, the company developed the ADP National Employment Report, recognizing that in providing one in every six checks in the US, it had statistical significance when it came to employment figures. Capone and his team have been at the forefront of that change, as well, developing a vast array of innovative product offerings through its Innovation Lab. ADP’s Mobile Solutions, advanced Semantic Search engine and a behavioral intelligence algorithm based on Big Data are some examples of ADP’s investment on research and focus on innovation.
The three steps from the remainder of the article are:
Brainstorm Scenarios that are Several Years Ahead
Engage High-Potential Future Leaders of IT
Live the Future You Hope to Create
To read the full article, please visit Forbes.com
It was hard not to sense the presence, and importance, of technology in this year’s 2012 London Olympic Games. In the second article of his “Technovation” column for Forbes, Peter High captures five lessons from the leader that helped make it all happen.
10-09-2012
The London 2012 Olympics were generally thought to be extremely well executed. As a casual or even an obsessive observer of the Games, it is easy to overlook how much technology has changed the Games, largely for the better. Among other things, Gerry Pennell, the CIO of London 2012, was responsible for ensuring that the core mission of measuring athletic performance and providing data to the media and ultimately to spectators around the world was achieved.
At first glance, running IT for the Olympics would seem very different from doing so at a typical company, but I recently spoke with Pennell, and he brought up a variety of lessons that are universally applicable.
Lesson 1: People – Hire Technologists who can run at sprint and marathon speeds
Pennell had an advantage in that eight years earlier, prior to beginning preparation for the London Games, there was an Olympics in an English speaking country (Australia) with people who have some cultural similarities to the Brits, and he was able to recruit some of them to join his efforts. That said, prior experience only goes so far. “New blood is essential so that people are not tempted to simply replay what was done in the past,” says Pennell. It is important to have fresh thinking for each Olympics, but it is also important that there be a preponderance of people from the host country in IT so that the IT plan reflect the unique aspects of the technology landscape in that country.
In terms of characteristics to look for, finding people who are comfortable operating with a high degree of uncertainty, and who will not be frustrated by changes, even at the last minute, is essential. At the beginning of Pennell’s journey with his colleagues, it was important to think of their jobs as a marathoner might, but at the end, there were a series of sprints. Balancing the strategy of the marathon (a topic covered below) with the tactics of the sprints is essential.
Increasingly, this is a lesson that CIOs in most companies must contemplate. The pace of change in IT is growing, and there are no signs of slowing down. Hiring people who are comfortable with change, and bring an R&D mentality to new technology is essential. As in many conventional business situations, it is also the case that projects move swiftly through different phases; its important to find people who are versatile enough to deal with strategy at one end of the process, and deployment or operations at the other. The more versatile the team the easier it is to respond correctly to changing situations.
Lesson 2: Strategy – In the absence of solid plans from others, understand where the finish line is, and work backwards
Lesson 3: Infrastructure – in four years, speed records are substantially different
Lesson 4: Governance – Develop detailed plans as to how much gold and silver will be necessary
Lesson 5: External Partnerships – Choose your relay partners wisely
To read the entire article, please visit Forbes.com.
In the first article of his “Technovation” column for Forbes, Peter High speaks with Marriott CIO Bruce Hoffmeister and Cisco CIO Rebecca Jacoby about the importance of IT leaders being able to article value through financial terms- a language everyone in the business can understand.
Article by Peter High, published on Forbes.com
10-01-2012
Whenever I have the occasion to speak with successful CIOs at length, I make it a point to ask them which skills they believe have served them best as they have ascended into the biggest chair in the IT department. Some classic responses understandably crop up time and again. These leaders work in the fast-moving world of IT, and only with a deep knowledge of and curiosity about technology can they stay abreast of developments in the field. Many CIOs will also mention the importance of management skills, given that they need to harness the talents of a large, diverse team of people who run the gamut of Myers-Briggs personality types.
Over the last few months, one skill has been brought up with increasing frequency: a facility with the language of business, and, in particular, finance. A facility with this discipline ensures that IT is contributing to the same key performance indicators that the rest of the organization is, and it also proves that IT is responsible at managing the funds it is given. More importantly it engenders trust among the rest of the executive team, giving the IT team the credibility to push strategic plans, attend board meetings, and to a greater extent earn a place among the direct reports to the CEO.
IT has long been accepted as a cost center of the company and as a cost of doing business. IT leaders have traditionally not even been asked to present the return on investment (ROI) of the projects they pursued because it was rare that there would be one. Perhaps this helps explain the subservient nomenclature of “IT and the business,” as though they are separate things.
For a long-time, IT departments measured success based on obvious IT metrics such as systems up-time and on-time/on budget/on scope of projects. As important as these are, they are introductory or foundational metrics. It is important for IT leaders to use the same success metrics that the rest of the organization does. In so doing, they begin to think about their portfolio of investments’ potential to contribute to the ultimate success of the business.
I recently spoke with Bruce Hoffmeister, Global CIO of Marriott…
To read the remainder of this article, please visit Forbes.com.
Peter High and Chris Laping, CIO of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, speak with XChange Events at their Midsize Enterprise Summit 2012 in San Antonio, Texas after their on-stage interview for the Forum on World Class IT.
Meet the new IT leader—an executive intensely focused on building out an unparalleled IT core while increasing the business value of IT. Those two initiatives are what motivate the next-gen CIO. This session will unlock the secrets to breaking through by sharing innovative ways to manage projects, forge partnerships with internal departments and influencers and execute on a vision for driving business value and change. No matter what the critics say IT is uniquely equipped to drive change and foster innovation.
This interview is with Chris Laping, who is not only the CIO of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers but the Vice President of Business Transformation and Peter High, President of Metis Strategy.
To watch Chris’ full video interview with Peter, please visit his interview page on the Forum on World Class IT.
Peter High tells the story of how Tony Scott, CIO of Microsoft, and Rebecca Jacoby, CIO of Cisco, are transforming their IT departments within their respective technology giants.
by Peter High, article published in The Wall Street Journal
08-02-12
Excerpt from the article:
Larger corporations with multiple operating companies, business units, or brands must confront a debate about the merits of centralized vs. federated organizational structures. The rationale for the former is often the desire to set common standards, create efficiencies, and leverage economies of scale by purchasing software and vendor services globally rather than locally, where possible. The rationale for the latter is often to have IT closest to where the business is done, to increase flexibility, and to efficiently deliver capabilities based on the unique needs of each individual entity.
There are a number of businesses that are taking a hybrid approach that befits major technological transformations that are afoot in the market. In so doing, they are recognizing the role that IT can play in fostering partnerships across the traditional business silos, and in creating efficiencies and fostering innovation.
Microsoft used to operate in the analog world, where its software products were manufactured on discs and sold in boxes. IT reflected the businesses it served, supporting manufacturing applications that were quite different from engineering applications. Over the past few years, given the availability of increased bandwidth and consumers’ comfort with digital products distributed over the web, customers now prefer downloading software to their device or accessing it over the web, as a service. Microsoft CIO Tony Scott, recognized this change and realized that his IT organization needed to adapt, speeding up the company’s processes and focusing on customer satisfaction.
Rebecca Jacoby, the chief information officer and senior vice president of the IT and Cloud and Systems Management Technology Group at Cisco, is leading a comparable transformation. Like Microsoft, Cisco is an extraordinarily diverse business, and IT had been aligned with the business structure. The company articulated a new vision, based on doing more across business units. Jacoby recognized the opportunity for IT to play a lead role in identifying common business processes that would form areas of potential collaboration. Services were identified to drive greater transparency and alignment. Jacoby told me that she created the Operational Excellence and Service Enablement team, “which sought to change the level of conversation with the business from technology deployments to IT capabilities and value creation, and to create a transparent partnership between IT and the business to bring about more effective management of the strategic goals of the organization.” (…)
To read this article in its entirety, please visit The Wall Street Journal.
If you would like to listen to our recent podcast interview with Tony Scott, CIO of Microsoft, please visit the Forum on World Class IT.
by Martha Heller, in CIO
05-30-2012
In 2015, what skills will appear on job descriptions for Fortune 500 CIOs? I asked Peter High, author of World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs, for a list of requirements.
First there are the table stakes. These start, High says, with an undergraduate degree in engineering or computer science. While there are a growing number of CIOs with liberal arts backgrounds, they’re still in the minority, he points out. And while a CIO doesn’t have to have spent all of their career in IT, they do need some experience managing the IT function–recently, given how dynamic technology is.
Other table stakes include:
To read the remainder of this article, please visit CIO.
To read another article by Martha Heller, in which she talks about how she uses World Class IT for CIO evaluations, please click here.
by Kalhan Koul May 2012
Please click here to download the PDF of this article
As the pace of technology progresses rapidly, it has become vital for CIOs and IT leaders to keep an eye out for transformative technologies that help increase efficiency, drive revenue, and more. Thus, since 2010, we have asked interviewees on Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT podcast series to provide their thoughts on upcoming trends in IT; our team has tracked the results and elucidated several interesting patterns, some of which will be highlighted in this paper.
Overall, 51 individuals, ranging from active CIOs, CTOs, CEOs, CFOs, CAOs, professors in IT-related fields, among others, provided their input concerning future trends. The graphs in this article demonstrate which areas IT thought leaders believed to be most compelling in the near future.
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the top trends identified over the course of the podcast series, and consist of some of the “usual suspects” such as cloud computing, mobility, etc. Figure 3 provides a breakdown of trends identified in 2010 vs. 2011, and Figure 4 takes the data a step further to demonstrate the change in percentage of identified trends. Together, these charts convey some interesting revelations, such as the emergence of trends like the consumerization of IT, the increased role of IT in the business, and the power of computing, as well as the decline or stagnation of trends such as social media. Although the identification of prominent and emerging trends provides interesting food for thought in itself, simply identifying trends without a broader context does not do the insights justice; thus, this article will further build upon these insights and present context concerning the emergence, decline, or persistence of specific trends in order to provide IT leaders greater visibility into what technologies will gain a foothold and should be considered sooner rather than later.
Figure 1: Top Trends Identified by Interviewees N = 51
Where the chart above provides the number of interviewees identifying trends, the chart below demonstrates trends identified as a percentage of interviewees.
Figure 2: Top Trends Identified – Percentage of Interviewees N = 51
The top few trends identified by the podcast interviewees, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, have been prominent in the IT realm for some time, and for good reason. Cloud computing, which essentially provides shared resources, software, and information on demand, enables increased flexibility in IT spend, as it entails not only a significant reduction in fixed costs, but the ability to focus time and resources on better supporting the business and aligning to their objectives, a proposition tantalizing to many CIOs. For example, Curt Edge, CIO of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, states that “about 4-5 years ago [prior to moving to the cloud], we spent about 80% of our time working on maintenance …today we spend anywhere from 60-65% of our time working with the businesses.[1] ” It should be noted that some of the identified trends, such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and virtualization remain closely linked to cloud computing: virtualization enables the movement of major infrastructure components to the cloud, and SaaS essentially acts as a subset of cloud computing, with software and associated data being centrally hosted in the cloud. For the purposes of this paper, these trends will be treated as distinct entities despite their linkage.
As mobile technologies improve at a rapid pace, employees have the ability to utilize mobile devices to conduct business and access internal networks, so that they may be productive anywhere. For instance, David McCue, CIO of Computer Sciences Corporation, states that “we’re all beginning to appreciate what the convergence of the last few years of ubiquitous available bandwidth, thick pipes, and powerful handheld devices means…we’ve learned that being able to do anything, anytime, anywhere is the direction we’re going.[2] ” Furthermore, what has partially enabled the advent of mobility has been the consumerization of IT, where a plethora of ever-improving mobile computing devices such as smartphones and tablets have begun to permeate the business world.
Taken together, these trends do not seem surprising at all, as they have been widely recognized in a variety of publications and numerous companies have begun implementing projects in relation to them; however, further delving into the data provides significant insights into the shifting priorities of IT leaders (see Figure 3 and Figure 4).
Figure 3: Trends Identified in 2010 and 2011 N = 48
Evidently, the data illustrates significant changes in trends identified between 2010 and 2011. Figure 4 provides the difference in percentage from 2010 to 2011, and reveals several interesting details concerning trend trajectories.
Figure 4: Change in Trend Identification from 2010 to 2011 – Percentage of Interviewees N = 48
First, the number of interviewees identifying social media and collaboration technologies (both internally and externally facing) as a major IT trend decreased dramatically; over the past two years, this trend dropped from first to fourth overall (see Figure 1).
So, what has caused this dramatic decrease in recognition? Some plausible explanations include the increased awareness of social media platforms, such as Facebook, that were more front-of-mind due to their exponential growth in use by the general population, or by the significant level of media exposure these platforms received. Another explanation could be that organizations recognized the potential of these platforms early and sought to implement technologies to take advantage of them. For instance, Microsoft witnessed a significant increase in sales of SharePoint [3] (which enables collaboration), indicating that more companies have sought this type of solution, and have addressed this trend. On the flipside, however, as detailed in a recent InformationWeek article, numerous internal social networking initiatives have faced lackluster adoption [4] ; one possible consequence could be that IT leaders have shifted focus elsewhere. Whatever the explanation, this precipitous decline in focus on social media remains an interesting topic that merits further monitoring.
It comes as no surprise that consumerization of IT, which concerns the impact that consumer-originated technologies have on enterprises, has witnessed the greatest increase in being identified as a trend from 2010 to 2011. The rise of tablet technologies likely acts as one of the primary drivers for this increase, particularly the release of the Apple iPad. Although consumerization of IT has been increasing in prominence as consumer technology becomes more sophisticated, it appears that the release and the widespread adoption of the iPad (approximately 55 million sold to date [5] ) has opened the floodgates and has caused this topic to considerably rise in prominence. In fact, Metis Strategy has advised several clients who have sought to implement tablets within their own organization in recent years; overall, despite concerns of security of information in adopting tablets and other consumer originated technologies, the majority of organizations have found benefits through a combination of increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and reduced cost. Furthermore, as the capabilities of consumer technologies expand, we have also seen an increase in organizations employing “Bring Your Own Device” programs, which leverage not only the familiarity employees have with their own devices, but the reduction in support necessary for these devices. For instance, Bruce Leidal, CIO of CareStream Health, states that “people own their own devices and they would just as soon use those for work…and we’re putting in the right infrastructure so that we can make sure that that happens. I think the benefits [are that] we have basically eliminated all of the support costs…it reduces our call volume and also takes a lot of noise out of our support environment. [6] ” Thus, overall, the rise in consumerization of IT makes sense given the parallel advancements and capabilities of consumer technology.
An additional trend that is rising in prominence includes an increased IT role in the business. In numerous organizations Metis Strategy has advised, IT has historically been regarded as an “order-taker”, and not seen as integral to driving the business; however, as technology becomes vital in how business operates in contemporary times, we have begun to see a shift towards increasing IT involvement in the business. Although this trend has yet to become pervasive, it appears to be a logical successor to other prominent trends. For instance, we have seen several of our clients try to unburden their resources by adopting cloud computing solutions, significantly increase virtualization, or leverage consumerization of IT programs such as ‘Bring Your Own Device’; not only do these initiatives decrease fixed costs related to hardware, but they drastically reduce ongoing maintenance and support of the hardware. Consequently, IT employees have increased opportunity to partner with the business so as to focus on value-oriented and revenue driving initiatives. For example, Jim Knight, EVP and Global CIO of Chubb & Son, states that “what we have found the last couple of years is not only are we the fuel for managing expenses…we’re also the engine for the business…because technology can get us there…there are absolutely expectations of us that our operations will be streamlined and [as] cost-effective as possible, but they are also investing in programs to bolster up the business. [7]” In addition, as the general consumer of technology becomes more tech savvy, it becomes necessary for businesses to connect with these consumers utilizing the same technology; as a result, IT can naturally team with other functions to drive business’ strategy through leveraging new tech-enabled customer touch points.
When explaining the power of computing and analytics as a rising trend, it makes sense to take a step back and assess the progress of technology as a whole. For instance, Moore’s Law, one measure of technology progress, states that the number of transistors that can affordably be placed on an integrated chip doubles approximately every two years (and is hence associated with growth in processing speed, memory, etc.), and illustrates the dramatic pace at which computing improves. Furthermore, recent developments where research teams have taken significant strides in quantum computing (e.g., IBM physicists at the Watson Research Center advancing superconducting qubits [8]) indicate that a new era in the scale of computing power may not be too far off. However, the real appeal lies in what can be done with this computing power, and how it can be utilized to drive business. June Drewry, former CIO of Chubb Insurance and Aon Corporation, states that “over the years…we’ve collected so much data that we’re not sure we know how to make information out of it in some cases; well, now we’re learning, and now there’s a thirst for it in the business. [9]”
The ability to process and analyze massive amounts of data, currently referred to as Big Data in IT circles, to form conclusions that can be acted upon will be invaluable, allowing businesses to discern customer behavior and other patterns. One of the reasons why this capability will be so valuable derives from the fact that many correlations that can be discovered through this type of analytics are not intuitive in nature. For instance, the New York Times recently published an article detailing how Target was able to utilize statistical correlations to predict which of its consumers were pregnant, and thus create tailored promotions to that demographic; other correlations included finding that newly-married individuals are more likely to begin purchasing a new type of coffee, or when individuals divorce, they tend to change brands of beer [10]. These behaviors do not appear to have inherently intuitive explanations, yet they exist and can be discovered and leveraged through analytics as enabled by computing power. Thus, the rise in the power of computing, and the correlated capability to conduct extensive analysis to discover valuable insights, will become a source of competitive advantage in the future, and likely explains why this trend has been increasing in prominence.
The analysis of the data obtained from the Forum on World Class IT podcast series reveals interesting insights concerning the trends that are front of mind for IT thought leaders. Not only does the data point to top trends such as cloud computing and mobility, but it also demonstrates trends rising in prominence such as consumerization of IT, the power of computing, and the increased IT role in the business, as well as trends on the decline such as social media.
From Metis Strategy’s perspective, we feel that IT’s increased role in the business, as well as the power of computing and analytics, will continue to be pertinent for business leaders, and will rise in prominence in the coming years. As many resource-consuming aspects of IT move to the cloud, such as purchasing and maintaining servers, network equipment, data center space, business applications, etc., IT organizations will thus be able to focus more on driving business strategy. One method of IT supporting the business, as we have seen in several organizations, entails enabling a strong business intelligence function, which is closely associated with the power of computing and analytics. As the amount of consumer information gathered and analyzed continues to grow, it will become essential for IT to develop methods to effectively consume and utilize this information to influence business decisions.
We feel that consumerization of IT, although experiencing a drastic increase in recognition in recent times, will level out somewhat. This is not to say that this trend has been ‘over-hyped’, but that the advantages of consumer-originated technology entering the business landscape have become much clearer recently, and many of our clients actively pursue opportunities to incorporate these technologies in their businesses. Similarly, when considering cloud computing, we feel this trend will begin to even out in the near future; cloud computing has been a topic of discussion among IT leaders for several years now, and we have begun to observe numerous companies moving ‘to the cloud’. In the coming years, cloud computing will be in essence ubiquitous, less of a consideration and more of a necessity, and will be intrinsic in how IT operates.
Overall, these insights bolster the notion that the landscape of IT continuously shifts and progresses at a rapid pace, and it becomes ever more important to keep our fingers on the pulse of IT and understand how these constantly emerging innovative technologies can be harnessed to propel business to a new level. Furthermore, what is truly exciting about all of these mentioned trends is that the majority of them provide tremendous opportunities for CIOs to collaborate with peers across the company, putting IT in the center of interesting conversations that could determine business direction. These trends have deep-seated business implications that should be taken advantage of to increase the curiosity and enthusiasm about how IT can help drive the business as opposed to merely supporting it.
[1] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with Curt Edge, March 26, 2012. [2] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with David McCue, April 9, 2012. [3] Mary Jo Foley, “Microsoft: We’re adding 20,000 new SharePoint users a day.” March 24, 2011. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-were-adding-20000-new-sharepoint-users-a-day/9011 [4] Healey, Mike. “Enterprise Social Networks: Dislike,” InformationWeek, February 2, 2012. [5] Sam Gustin, “How Many iPads Can Apple Sell?” Time Business, March 16, 2012. [6] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with Bruce Leidal, November 21, 2011. [7] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with Jim Knight, January 3, 2012. [8] Cade Metz, “IBM Busts Record for ‘Superconducting’ Quantum Computer,” Wired Enterprise, February 28, 2012. [9] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with June Drewry, December 5, 2011. [10] Charles Duhigg, “How Companies Learn Your Secrets,” The New York Times, February 16, 2012.
Please visit The Forum on World Class IT to listen to the podcasts and trends mentioned in this article.
