Stop obsessing about costs Gartner tells CIOs

Stan Beer
Sunday, 10 December 2006 17:40

IT Industry - Market

In addition, identifying individuals with the creativity, ability and a determination to overcome corporate inertia and take new ideas to action is paramount for IT to deliver business innovation.  In a poll at a recent Gartner Symposium, 80 percent of respondents said this is a priority, however, only 20 percent had a systematic innovation program in place.

Mr Mahoney highlighted that climate change, whether real or a widespread perception, is a strategic discontinuity which enterprises, their IT organisations and IT vendors must respond to. “CIOs need to make sure they get their own house in order by setting targets for IT's contribution to electrical efficiency, recycling, travel reduction and equipment lifecycle management,” he said. “They should also add environmental sustainability to their list of equipment, services and vendor selection criteria.”

Gartner’s advice on what CIOs should do MORE of in 2007

4.       Help HR become strategic

5.       Improve frontline business experience

6.       Re-establish visibility of total enterprise spend on technology

Social networks, collaboration, remote working, collective intelligence and web 2.0; the range of socio-technical phenomena allowing people to interact, create value and contribute it in new ways is changing fast. This will transform the nature of business organisation, labour supply, rights and responsibilities.

According to Mr Mahoney, “If marketing was the department to partner with in the first wave of Internet transformation, HR is the function to get on-side as the second Internet ‘revolution' washes across your bows. The global talent wars of the next few years will depend on the ability to absorb and exploit revolutionary technical change. CIOs should expect to face a lack of comprehension from the HR department in 2006, however, his or her challenge is to overcome that.”

CIOs should also consider a scheme to get the IT leadership team into frontline jobs for at least one week each year to experience the daily realities of how the business operates. Over time, this transforms the business’ perception of the IT organisation's commitment and reveal powerful new insights on issues like system utilisation and change management priorities.

Gartner’s advice on what CIOs should STOP DOING in 2007

7.       Returning  savings from cost efficiencies

8.       Treating IT governance as procedure

9.       Obsessing about the minutiae of technology

CIOs have become masters at managing and reducing IT costs. While sometimes essential, Mr Mahoney warned it has become damaging to longer term strategies for growth and leads to under-investment in infrastructure. 

He said, “We recommend that CIOs tag savings from one area, for direct application in another. Be specific; ‘savings made from server consolidation will be used to upgrade sales force laptops in quarter three’.  Start reporting regularly on business value delivered for completed projects and make simplification a mantra. This isn't the same as cutting IT costs, it means redesigning business processes for less complex and expensive systems.”

Mr Raskino added, “CIOs also need to lead by example and stop the organisation repeatedly discussing technology minutiae. All the noise around Microsoft Vista is a good example. Make your decision about a technology and then stop debating it. Too many IT organizations waste energy in endless discussion loops, distracting attention from far more important issues.”

Gartner’s advice on what CIOs should learn in 2007

10. Get 'hands on' with new trend-leading technologies

Immediate priorities often prevent IT leaders from taking time to experience new trend-leading technologies for themselves. This often means they can't create the concrete business benefits that these imaginative possibilities stimulate. Mr Mahoney highlighted the following technologies to get 'hands-on' with in 2007:

 

o        3D printing

This is not new, but the technology has been advancing in quality over the last few years and printer costs have fallen substantially. They build real physical versions of 3D computer designs layer by layer in materials like ABS plastic.

 

o        Social information analysis tools

The next big wave of productivity gains will come from improving the efficiency of non-routine, knowledge work such as discovery, innovation, collaboration, leading and learning. Many online systems have supported simple aggregation and sharing of content. Now, tools which analyse those social interactive processes and generate second level insight are starting to evolve.

o        Newer high-level programming languages

Attempts to make programming languages easier to learn, simpler to use and more powerful in their features continue. Gartner believes it is important to know what the new generation is being introduced to and what some of the more advanced end-users in the organisation can get their hands on.

o        Virtual communities

These are already familiar to many young people in developed countries. They are not just games, but increasingly relate to social, business, political and entertainment environments. Virtual worlds in themselves are becoming big business.

Mr Raskino added, “To avoid getting hijacked in meetings and corridors, CIOs need to form their own view of these emerging technologies”.

In summary he said: “Just like losing weight, giving up smoking and reviewing your superannuation – there are some important things in IT leadership without deadlines that never quite seem to get done. Set them as 2007 resolutions before it’s too late.”