Stop obsessing about costs Gartner tells CIOs

Stan Beer
Sunday, 10 December 2006 17:40

IT Industry - Market

Gartner has unveiled a list of "New Year Resolutions" for CIOs and one of them is to stop obsessing about cutting costs. According to Gartner, the cost cutting ethos of CIOs is leading to under investment in infrastructure and is damaging to long term growth strategies. The advice comes as part of an annual report for CIOs.

In its annual ‘CIO New Year Resolutions’, Gartner advises CIOs what to ‘start, do more of, stop as well as learn’ in 2007. The Gartner resolutions are designed to help CIOs create more value for their business and differentiate their own performance from that of their peers.

“2007 will see mounting demand for business growth and agility, rapid development of consumer technology and increasing availability of new infrastructure tools, at the same time as the evolution of the IT organisation continues to pick up pace,” said John Mahoney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “This will require CIOs to have a fairly ambitious list of ‘new year resolutions’ for 2007, in addition to the big main agenda projects that other people depend on them to deliver in a timely way.”

Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner fellow added, “2007 will bring some genuinely new puzzles that CIOs must solve for themselves or risk ‘following the rest of the herd over the cliff’.”

Gartner’s advice on what CIOs should START in 2007

1.       Create an IT leadership generation succession plan

2.       Track and improve the environmental performance of your IT

3.       Identify, enable and provide incentives for true innovators

As the baby boomer generation, born 1946-1964, start to retire en masse, IT departments will lose wisdom and leadership.  According to Gartner, this also presents an opportunity to clear out some 'dead wood'; for example people that were over-promoted in the early days of IT and some out-dated attitudes stifling progressive thought.

Mr Raskino said, “Don’t assume the next generation of IT leadership should look the same as the last. Identify your best generation X people born in the 60s and 70s, then start giving them challenging projects and operational responsibilities to complete their experience. Bear in mind that future IT management will need skill traits more common amongst women, people with experience from multiple disciplines, business skills and proven change management success.”