IT managers must drive business change 'from the inside out'

David Bicknell

over 1 year ago 1 Comment

The management consultancy PwC has argued that top-performing organisations show greater mastery in how they leverage digital technologies by the way they embrace consumerisation, the Cloud and social media.

The management company’s this week published its Digital IQ survey which says that these top performers are already offering mobile tools for customers, measuring data through social media, mobilising applications to the public Cloud and are applying innovative use of business intelligence. It also finds that most enterprises are still playing catch-up on the consumerisation of IT.

It points to an increasingly critical role for the CIO. PwC argues that CIOs must be excellent at managing the internal factory, but also excel at mobilising new plans into action.

The Digital IQ findings call for business leaders — and, in particular, today’s CIOs and IT managers — to lead their organisations to change and innovate from the inside out. The report findings suggest that excellence in IT has not been commoditised and is still creating a competitive advantage. Indeed, IT-enabled, multi-channel connections with customers can make a marked difference to business results. But to succeed, IT managers — and top executives in the so-called 'C-suite' — must excel at not just managing internally, but also at mobilising new plans into action.

PwC argues that a high Digital IQ requires IT managers to find better ways to sift through and drive insight from the increasing amounts of data streaming 'from every manner of device and interaction', and to create a platform that can deliver these capabilities across a varied set of changing mobile devices.

PwC’s survey showed that 63 percent of respondents revealed their greatest challenge is the inability to gather, understand and act on customer data, while 58 percent cite an inability to understand and adopt the new information technologies they need to be competitive.

“Consumerisation of IT is on the rise, and in the survey we continue to see a need to serve the mobile customer, move to Cloud services, and use data more effectively,” said Chris Curran, principal at PwC. “Organisations that have an integrated strategy—which includes technology—seem to perform better.”

Comments

Paul Ng Wai

I absolutely agree with this perspective but with a major twist - 'IS Managers' must drive business change from the inside out rather than purely IT managers. IS Managers, IS, and ICT professionals are in unique positions within their organizations to truly change the business ecosystems that they form a part of. This is perhaps due to one major fact - no other industry today is experiencing the kind of rapid change that has been cited by so many, than that of the Technology industry. R&D is high on the list of many forward-thinking businesses around the world leading to a plethora of upgrades, hybrids, theories, and applications. But for me one big question comes to the fore; Is big brother Information Systems keeping up with the pace of the technological advancements created by its little sibling ICT (or is IS the little brother trying desperately to give its older sibling some advice)? One lesson I gathered from the blog is that of the widely used, but difficult to grasp, concept of Innovation. Inventive ideas, integrated-hybrid approaches, new ways of doing (sometimes old) things, and the proverbial, thinking-out-of-the-box, have driven developments to many man-made systems and technologies over many years. Embracing recent industry trends, technological developments, and new ways of reaching people, are all essentially innovative developments, to drive competitive advantage and change within their organizational settings, the industries they represent, and the markets they serve. What remains to be seen is the upkeep of Information Systems thinking being applied to new developments as they are made. This would seem to me at least, to address the mobilisation issue. With data management issues growing and the trend continuing well into the future, sifting through rapidly growing customer databases takes a great toll as it is, on the resources of many an IS department. No wonder 58 percent cite an inability to adopt and 'understand' new technologies for the sweet fruit called 'competitive advantage'. To put it simply, they are un-able to make sense of it all. The answer? I have a very very strong feeling about this one - organizations require, dare I say need, more effective Information Systems; the business strategies, IS strategies, governance, procedures, organization structure, the right people and leadership attitudes,.... and then...technology. The last line in the blog says it quite succinctly “Organisations that have an integrated strategy—which includes technology—seem to perform better.” I noted "integrated strategy - which includes technology". I sense that perhaps for far too many organizations it's still a case of integrated technologies - which includes strategy. If technology continues to outrun the very systems that should be in place to help govern, align, direct, and just bring sense to all these innovations...well I think I'll leave this as food for thought. What do you think will be the result? Agree? Disagree? Different perspectives? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I'm sure the larger community as well, so let's discuss these great topics for everyone's benefit.

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