CIO Perspective
Managing IT today has become the challenge of delivering cost savings whilst meeting the increased expectations of providing value to the “customer”. Business is in constant change and needs IT to adopt and provide support to the renewed situation. In the context of interaction between business and IT, we also struggle with different views on what is needed and what is provided. The lack of a common point of reference, where both sides can share the view of the actual situation and the future state, is crucial to overcome to be successful.
As we meet several organizations we have seen a clear pattern distinguishing IT organizations into two different behaviors:
- Cost cutters, focus on cost reduction and operational efficiency.
- Innovators, focus on exploring new ways to use IT for business innovation and operational excellence.
At Ortelius we have developed patterns and services bridging the two perspectives enabling our customer to not think of this situation as an “either or” decision; successful IT organizations have to do both. They have to save cost and improve efficiency at the same time and accept the challenge to manage cost levels even when numbers and complexity of solutions increases. In a constantly changing environment the CIO has to make resources available for innovation and delivery of business value. The new decade requires new skills and a new mindset of the IT leader.