2012: The 10 CIO Priorities
The sequence for the list of CIO challenges for 2012 is built on the IT organization maturity concept. As each company has a very individual situation and business requirements the list needs to be prioritized accordingly:
1. IT Strategy adjustment for Agility & Business Needs
While most companies have accomplished a stable IT environment and have improved their efficiency a lot over the last years, still most of them have not accomplished building an agile IT. This means being able to adjust the spending and resources very quickly to changing markets. Similarly most companies have an IT Strategy but the chapter on business vision, direction, and requirement is empty.
2. Service Catalog Benchmark
While some companies do regularly benchmarks the traditional cost based benchmarks are outdated. What is required is a price based benchmark against the service catalog. This means it compares the internal charge rates against external service provider. The benchmark will show potential problem areas but also outsourcing opportunities and gives a good feedback how competitive the internal IT is.
3. Security pro-active as Business Enabler
Security has been one of the top three IT priorities in the last 5 years. But a couple of new developments need to be correctly addressed. First security needs to be pro-active to enable business and not just focus on their charter to “secure” the company. Second the new computing paradigm is cloud and security in and for the cloud is a big concern. Thirdly the broad use of Social Media requires adoption.
4. Cloud Strategy & Use Cases development
80% of all server based computing will be external by 2020. Companies need to understand the trend and prepare for it. It is important to find the right Use Cases and to pilot them in order to build the internal knowledge as well as to gain the acceptance within the IT organization. Many end users are already using privately Public Clouds and some for the business and the overall trend cannot be stopped.
5. DC & Storage solutions, Best Practice Implementation
While Datacenters have been regularly updated many still lack the support for modern demands on power and cooling. The penetration for server virtualization has not reached a sufficient level. In the Storage area most companies have not implemented the newest technologies such as de-duplication, thin provisioning, data compression and encryption. Also Business Continuity needs to be updated.
6. BYOD analysis, start with smaller groups
Bring your own device has started many controversy discussion. But the fact is it cannot be stopped. In most companies those devices are first brought in by the executives themselves. Employees will use their preferred personal productivity tool(s) and make their own decision about notebooks, tablets, and smartphones. IT has to act and build a strategy. Starting with smaller groups is strongly recommended.
7. BI, DW, EPM enhancements & Big Data review
Business Intelligence has been on the top of the list for quite some time but the implementation is still relatively slow and most of the time it happens in islands. It is necessary to move to the next level and implement an Enterprise Performance Management concept. With the increasing amount of data from many different sources “Big Data” concepts might provide excellent value for the enterprise.
8. Social Media Assessment, Strategy & Guidelines
Again, it happens everywhere as we have learned latest from the Arab Spring. It is seen in the companies but nobody takes the responsibility to address this phenomena correctly in order to build recommendations, guidelines, and an overall strategy. A quick first assessment can deliver very valuable insights. Afterwards the communication and cross-functional work becomes a challenging task.
9. Business Excellence: Business Process Master Plan, Self-Service, Total Customer Experience (TCE)
Business owns the processes but IT has to build the process knowledge to support and integrate them. Many new opportunities for automation and horizontal process improvements, such as Self-Service offerings, need a full understanding and redesign by the IT organization. The Total Customer Experience should be the ultimate goal and needs to be measured as the TCE quality is often not very high.
10. Creation of x-functional Innovation Teams
Nearly every company has put innovation on the top of their agenda. Why? Innovation and especially Business Model Innovation can help to outperform the competition. Product and Process Innovation is the bread and butter for all companies to survive in a world of increasing global competition and market challenges. IT needs to build x-functional teams to pro-actively address all areas of innovation.