Emerging Technologies: Getting From Promise to Payoff. Emerging technologies are the stuff IT dreams are made of. Their potential to improve processes, productivity and profits are a big part of what makes IT so fascinating. But CIOs know they can't just install a new system and expect instant, automatic results. That's why, in CIO Insight's 2007 Emerging Technologies Survey, we not only track the status of 48 potentially important technologies but we explore the management practices that help IT executives turn the promise of those technologies into payoffs. We also examine the track records of 18 technologies that appeared in previous years' emerging technology surveys and have since reached an adoption rate of 25 percent or higher.
This year, we found IT executives particularly intrigued by Web video, a wide variety of Internet and Web 2.0 technologies, and virtualization. CIOs hope these technologies will deliver business value, just as widely adopted technologies like Web services and voice over IP (VoIP) have done at most companies. Bigger budgets go to strategic IT. After years of hearing that investing in IT was a smart strategic plan, business executives seem to have gotten the message, according to a new Gartner CIO survey released today -- but only when the dollars are going to technology efforts that have visible benefits for the bottom line, primarily externally facing initiatives involving customers or partners.
The good news is that, despite the softening economy, IT budgets are going up 3.3 percent across the nearly 1,500 companies that Gartner surveyed. The data that matters for IT execs: Budgets for companies focused on bottom-line-oriented efforts are increasing 4.9 percent, said Mark McDonald, a Gartner Group vice president. Those organizations whose IT strategy involves only an efficiency focus will typically see budget increases of just 1.7 percent. The survey shows that a sea change has occurred in IT priorities, McDonald noted.
Are You Obsolete? The "New" Chief Information Officer. CIOs show a wide-range of interests in what they read online. Creating Enterprise 2.0 from Web 2.0. Strategic SOA outpacing tactical Web services for ROI. The Just a Bunch of Web Services (JBOWS) approach not only does not amount to a strategic implementation of service-oriented architecture (SOA), it also does not pay off in return on investment (ROI), When you register, you'll begin receiving targeted emails from my team of award-winning writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on recent service-oriented architecture (SOA) and SOA-related topics such as integration, governance, Web services, Cloud and more. according to a new report from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company. Organizations investing in a "full SOA infrastructure," reported better results in terms of lower application development and maintenance costs and high end user satisfaction, than those doing tactical Web services, according to the Aberdeen survey.
The report commissioned by BEA Systems Inc. and Hitachi Consulting Corp., also focused on the value of middleware. Both of them repeated the mantra: "SOA is something you do, not something you buy. " Study Says Technology Execution Leads to Business Performance. CIO — The fundamental problem when businesspeople use trendy phrases like agility, innovation, resilience and adaptability is that their meaning is not clear.
Now the BTM Institute, a nonprofit think tank established to study how best to manage business and technology, has come up with a definition: consistent execution, with constant growth that’s tied to financial performance. That’s the point made by a new study from BTM Institute, says Faisal Hoque, founder and chair of the BTM Institute. 3 Takeaways on Business-Technology Convergence Faisal Hoque, founder and chair of the BTM Institute, cites three key lessons from his group's study of business-IT convergence: 1. 2. 3. The BTM Institute examined five years’ worth of Global 2000 financial data and analyzed the companies’ capabilities in four functional areas: governance and organization; strategy and planning; strategic investment management; and strategic enterprise architecture.
4 Ways CIOs Can Impact the Bottom Line. In the not-too-distant future, keeping the company e-mail system up and running or overseeing a sweeping transition to a service-oriented architecture—important as those responsibilities may be—might not be enough to keep a Fortune 500 CIO in a job. A report issued this week from Gartner suggests that CIOs, long considered captains of the Good Ship Cost Center, need to start thinking and acting more like venture capitalists, not only to drive revenue and profits but also to better position themselves for future openings within the executive ranks. "Sure, some CIOs are going to say, 'What are you smoking? '" says Dave Aron, an analyst at Gartner and author of the report.
"They'll say that it's not their job to drive revenue growth. What we're finding and trying to tell CIOs is that this is more of an opportunity than a responsibility. " "It may seem corny, but having that venture capitalist mind-set really works," he says. Clarify enterprise growth levers and where IS should contribute.
How CIOs Can Introduce Web 2.0 Technologies into the Enterprise. CIO — One essential promise for Enterprise 2.0, or Web 2.0 for the enterprise, is making important information available to the people who need it, in large part by using blogs and wikis to capture and store institutional knowledge, says Dion Hinchcliffe, president and CTO of Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 consultancy Hinchcliffe and Company, during his session at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston. This means, for example, that when veteran accountant Sally leaves the company, her knowledge does not leave with her (an increasing problem as baby boomers retire). Enterprise 2.0 tools like blogs, message boards, and wikis also offer savings on training costs. For example, T.
Rowe Price, which manages more than $349 billion in assets, hires about 1,500 workers to work in the call center just for tax season. In the past, each person wrote down his training notes, which walked out the door when he did at the end of the season. Continue Reading. I.T. as Service | BPM Today.