Gaining market opportunities through IT simplification
Today’s globally competitive business climate demands that organizations reduce complexity to ensure the reliable delivery of products and services to customers, and to better adapt to fast-changing business needs. CIOs (Chief Information Officers) must simplify their IT infrastructures to enable the business to function optimally in this environment, as technology budgets cannot be infinitely expanded to support new requirements. The solution is to develop a strategy to scale and streamline IT systems, to support business growth while reining in costs. Businesses must optimize their infrastructures, turning their unwieldy data centers into flexible, dynamic and highly cost-effective platforms for business innovation.
The IT function over many years has evolved from a mere transactional tool into a pervasive, integral element virtually ev-
At IBM Software Universe 2013 in Sri Lanka, CIOs can discover future technologies, revolutionary ery aspect of doing business. This transformation has constituted a fundamental, structural change in different arenas and has put IT performance at the top of the CEO's agenda at enterprises. Yet most institutions are facing a major IT problem: how to cope with growing complexity. This complexity can stem from numerous sources, such as funding models that make it difficult to pursue long -term, low-ROI (Rate of Return) projects like IT application consolidation; short-term business decisions who cumulative IT ramifications become problematic overtime; old and inefficient legacy systems that are never refreshed.
Simplification tools and next generation best practices that will transform the way they work, live and play. Meet Possible, simplify and accelerate business performances on March 18- 19 at the Cinnamon Grand, Colombo.
For many businesses, the road to a dynamic infrastructure will lead to the consolidation and simplification of their IT infrastructures through virtualisation and the automation of operational management processes. The final destination: an IT organisation that can quickly deliver innovations to help the business enhance competitiveness, improve customer satisfaction and reduce risk. Possibly the most critical requirement of organisations that are looking at continuous growth is to enable better decision making. They look to IT to get the most timely, relevant and accurate information in the hands of business leaders when they need it. That’s why process and prod- uct simplification to drive better real-time decision making are top priorities for of CIOs. CIOs look beyond the boundaries of the enterprise to simplify business processes and generate real-time insights up and down the value chain.
According to the IBM CIO Study 2011, 98 per cent of the CIOs said they would lead or support efforts to simplify key processes in business. An overwhelming 99 per cent identified initiatives to simplify internal key processes as among those they would lead or support, while 97 per cent said they would lead or support efforts to simplify for clients. More than half also plan to lead initiatives to simplify for external partners, while a substantial portion will support such efforts.
CIOs are increasingly helping organizations cope with complexity by simplifying operations, business processes, products and services. To increase competitiveness, 83 per cent of CIOs have visionary plans that include business intelligence and ana- lytics, followed by mobility solutions (74 per cent) and virtualisation (68 per cent).
Yet, while the technologies that CIOs are turning to reveal the tactics that they’re using to knock complexity out of their operations; what is even more telling is the overarching strategies that they’re outlining for the future and the priorities that they’re establishing.
Because for the first time, the CIO’s vision of the future is almost identical with that of the CEO. The top three areas that they’re focusing on are strengthening relationships with customers, developing the skills of employees, and gaining insight and intelligence.
What that means is that CIOs aren’t simply in the business of helping run companies. CIOs can’t afford to deploy technologies that simply make operations more cost effective. They need technology that can also provide insights that help companies grow. In the end, CIOs are zeroing in on simplification so that they can focus on the business of creating more business.
It’s no coincidence that all three of these priorities share a basic tenant: Help a company grow. The job of a CIO no longer stops and starts with making operations more cost effective. Instead, a CIO’s overarching mandate is using technology to open up new businesses, propel productivity, and spark innovation. Selecting vendors to help streamline an IT environment is an important step for a CIO. It’s imperative that these partners understand why the ability to be dynamic is so important in today’s fastmoving environment. Vendors must help companies meet customer expectations, remain competitive, manage risk and comply with regulations— and prove that they can help CIOs make that case to business executives.
It’s also no coincidence that all three of these future priorities that CIOs and CEOs share is based on collecting, analysing and acting on information. Collaboration services help companies track employee expertise and bring together employees around the world to work together on projects. Social media and analytics are enabling businesses to get closer to customers and turn them into partners. Using tiny sensors and intelligent software is turning supply chains, warehouses, even oceans into networks of things that can track and make sense of information.
Simplification is no longer just one of the tasks that CIOs have to tackle. It is not just a way to increase efficiency anymore. Nor is it a way of simply improving productivity. Data has become the lifeblood of the success of every company doing business today. And so simplification has become crucial as well.