CIO’s Five Take Away from IW 500 Report

IT is business catalyst, especially for those customer-centric businesses cross-sectors.

Recently released Information Week 500 report provides comprehensive analysis regarding latest technology trend and top IT project priority for IT innovation leaders, here are top five take away for CIOs.

     1.IT Rules is Changed

IT plays more critical role in leading business changes, compare to a year ago, there’re some priority change for IT projects:

• Customer Centric Priority: In the survey of 500 business technology innovators, customer-centric priority has risen, 46% of the 500 companies this year, are introducing new IT-led products and services for customers.  Back in 2009, only 37% had that as a top priority.

• Efficiency Improvement: 49% of InformationWeek 500 companies cite improving the efficiency of business processes, making this efficiency area the most-cited priority. But that’s down five points from a year ago, and down from 60% back in 2009’s recession

• Cost Reduction: 29% cite “lower business or IT costs” as a priority, down sharply from 2009, when 47% did.

 2. CIO is “official” Chief Innovation Officer

• CIO as Official Chief Innovation Officer: The innovators realize the rules for IT have changed, and CIO roles are changing accordingly. One-third of IW 500 CIOs now have formal responsibility for innovation in their companies, more than double the 16% who did in 2009.

• The new IT mantra “do more with innovation” may be the bigger opportunity for many organizations. Beyond mere cost cutting, IT is coming up with creative ways to offer new and improved services to their internal users and to the end customers.

 3.Cloud/Mobile/Big Data Analytics are Mainstreams

Mobile devices, cloud computing, and big data analytics are blowing the old IT rules to pieces.

• Cloud computing is firmly established among IW 500 companies. Eighty-five percent use cloud software, and 27% use a cloud platform-as-a-service.

• Mobile is main focus: as customers are shopping across channels in stores and on the web with mobile blurring the lines, mobile apps become silver lining to delight customers and satisfy employees.

• Analytics Everywhere: Analytics has been getting increasingly sophisticated. from predictive analytics to sentimental analysis, analytics touch both customer front line and internal operation and value chain. Analytics maturation mirrors the broader IT industry’s move from rear-view mirror reporting to predictive and proactive analytics. Innovation leaders uses the deep insight it gets from all of this analytics to develop new breakout brands.

4. Customer is King, Employee is Queen

As this year’s rule change, customer-centricity becomes IT project’s main priority:

• Customer Focus: Mobile apps are a major driver of the customer focus—companies are getting mobile apps out to customers even faster than they are to employees. Already, 37% of IW 500 did. Right alongside this cost focus is to “improve Web operations and customer experience" (31%) and “engage customers in new ways” (30%—up a whopping 10 points from 2009).companies have widespread deployment of customer-facing mobile apps, compared with 25% for employees. Businesses also gather more data on consumer buying habits and profitability of pricing model, to improve customer experience and business growth.

• Satisfy Employees: Big wins are possible with employee-facing apps, too—38% say that deploying iPads or other tablets is among their biggest productivity boosters, emerging BYOD phenomenon has noble purpose to improve employees’ productivity and working satisfaction.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration is New Normal

• Cross-Functional Collaboration is Key: One of the toughest challenges for the project’s IT leaders, in fact, was coordinating their planning, deadlines, and processes with other business teams, including product engineering and marketing. CIOs and their teams will have to take this journey, as e-commerce, mobile apps, and social media become more important.

• The Emerging Partnership with the CMO is Ultra-important. CIOs are accepting that customers don’t want to unplug—they want relevant apps that add to their experience This emerging competency around customer facing systems is just not something that IT is used to doing,. And IT need work closely with marketing to deliver. IT has to align with these other product cycles and make sure they were ready to deliver it at the right time when it was ready from a marketing standpoint.

• Build up more Creative Working Environment: CIO is running not just an IT organization aligned with business priorities, but one in a position to lead the business with its close customer relationships. Business also wants to create “a collaborative environment that’s fun for people.

In conclusion,  IT is business catalyst, especially for those customer-centric businesses cross-sectors, IT, marketing, product/service are working more closely than ever to optimize customer experience and improve business process, IT is at the center of business innovation and transformation.

Posted in: CIO Debate,Innovation,IT Transformation