To Support Innovation and Enterprise Agility In the Digital Era, IT Must Focus on Four Imperatives
May 13 2015 - 9:30AM
Business Wire
The Hackett Group’s Research Also Identifies
an Array of IT Capability Gaps
To achieve world-class performance in the digital era, IT
organizations must focus on four imperatives, according to new IT
Key Issues Research from The Hackett Group (NASDAQ:HCKT): translate
technology innovation into business innovation opportunities;
manage and mitigate the impact of complexity; redesign the IT
service delivery model to support business technology convergence;
and support the company’s information transformation journey.
“The best IT leaders are realizing that the way they’ve operated
in the past no longer cuts it,” said IT Executive Advisory Practice
Leader Scott Holland. “The traditional mindset of building systems
that are robust, predictable, and to spec isn’t enough anymore.
Yes, you need to keep the legacy systems running. But greater
agility and flexibility is required, and IT needs to be able to
turn on a dime to support the changing needs of the business and
create real strategic advantage.”
The Hackett Group’s research found that for the enterprise, high
levels of volatility and uncertainty persist, driving a combined
focus on agility and innovation. An IT focus on agility and speed
is key, as IT often has a critical impact on time-to-market, with
technology development efforts integral to product or services
launches. Companies are also concerned with an array of risks, led
by intensified competition, access to critical talent, and
regulatory risk. Many of these risks have impact on IT.
At the same time, IT budgets and staffing are both expected to
see only modest increases in 2015, according to The Hackett Group’s
research, with staff increasing by 3.3 percent and budgets by 3.1
percent. These increases are significantly higher than those seen
in last year’s study. But cost pressures continue, and IT
investments are being made strategically, in key areas, including
data and analytics, mobile, and cloud-based initiatives.
The need to support a technology-led enterprise innovation
agenda and enable enterprise agility is related to the transition
from the industrial to the digital era, The Hackett Group’s
research finds. This translates into four world-class IT
imperatives.
Translate Technology Innovation into Business Innovation
- Innovation is a core component of virtually all business growth
strategies, and digital business transformation is on the agenda of
the majority of companies. At the same time, technology innovation
is progressing at a relentless pace, manifested in technologies
such as cloud computing, big data analytics, the Internet of
Things, mobile apps, and social media. IT’s ability to translate
this technology innovation into business innovation opportunities
is rapidly becoming a core attribute of world-class IT performance,
the research finds. This is a complex, multifaceted issue involving
business partnering capability maturity, technology innovation
competency, innovation process integration, and the maturity and
business savvy of technology talent, along with enterprise
innovation culture.
Learn to Live with Technology Complexity - Widespread
frustration about IT’s inability to keep up with business demands
is in part a result of complexity in technology infrastructures
that has been created in recent decades. As a result, most
resources in many IT organizations are now consumed by just running
these systems. Ability to focus on value-added activities,
including innovation, is predicated on how well complexity in the
traditional technology environment is managed, the research finds.
Aspiring to actually reduce technology complexity in the digital
age is not realistic. Instead, it must be minimized and managed. In
addition, the need to manage the deluge of data generated in the
digital era will introduce additional complexity into the
technology environment.
Reinvent the IT Service Delivery Model - IT organizations
also need to fundamentally change their service delivery model to
stay relevant as the lines between what was traditionally defined
as either “the business” or “IT” continue to blur, The Hackett
Group recommends. Technology is rapidly becoming pervasive and
integral to all aspects of the core business, changing the way the
IT organization engages with it. As the distinction between IT and
the business gradually becomes less relevant, the issue of how IT
engages with the business evolves into governance issues about how
technology decisions are made. With the explosion of on-demand,
cloud-based technologies, sourcing models are also undergoing a
complete overhaul. Most importantly, IT needs to develop or bring
in new talent to stay relevant in the digital age.
Plan and Execute the Information Transformation Journey -
Of all the emerging technologies, analytics has perhaps the
greatest potential for business value creation, the research finds.
But to truly optimize the use of big data requires comprehensive
transformation that goes beyond incremental change. Mobility and
cloud-based analytics are further accelerating the value of
analytics, but at the same time creating additional technology
selection, security, and application development challenges for IT
organizations. For many companies, a commitment to analytics and
big data coincides with changes in the decision-making culture and
in the nature of value creation from product-centric to
information- and service-centric. IT organizations are being
challenged to redefine their role in this transition.
The Hackett Group’s new study, “IT Key Issues in 2015:
Innovation and Agility are Driving the IT Agenda,” is based on
results gathered from executives from over 170 large companies in
the US and abroad, most with annual revenue of $1 billion or
greater. A complimentary version of the research is available with
registration at this link:
http://www.thehackettgroup.com/research/2015/pr/keyissuesit15/
About The Hackett Group
The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT) is an intellectual
property-based strategic consultancy recognized as the leading
enterprise benchmarking and best practices implementation
firm to Global 2000 companies. Services include business
transformation, enterprise performance
management, working capital management, and global
business services. The Hackett Group also provides dedicated
expertise in business strategy, operations, finance, human capital
management, strategic sourcing, procurement, and information
technology, including its award-winning Oracle EPM and SAP
practices.
The Hackett Group has completed more than 11,000 benchmarking
studies with major corporations and government agencies, including
93% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 86% of the Fortune 100, 87% of
the DAX 30 and 51% of the FTSE 100. These studies drive its Best
Practice Intelligence Center™ which includes the firm's
benchmarking metrics, best practices repository, and best practice
configuration guides and process flows, which enable The Hackett
Group’s clients and partners to achieve world-class
performance.
More information on The Hackett Group is available at:
www.thehackettgroup.com, info@thehackettgroup.com, or by calling
(770) 225-3600.
The Hackett GroupGary Baker, 917-796-2391Global
Communications Directorgbaker@thehackettgroup.com
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