Over the next two to three years, CIOs will be have to work hard to help business leaders identify, develop and instill the new strategic business capabilities that will help restore their businesses to full health in the post-recession world, according to Gartner. Failure to do this may lead their businesses to be sidelined.
Gartner fellow and vice president Mark Raskino said If CIO thinks the task ahead of him is simply to introduce a new technology, standardise a disparate set of computer systems across the corporation, update vendor agreements and revise the IT governance structure for your company, he might have to review it.
Great companies compete by advancing strategic business processes (SBCs). Customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management are two main examples of what SBC means. These are not "just" technologies, but involve process changes, mind-set shifts, new job roles and organisation changes, they affirmed.
Raskino added, "Think of SBCs as a vector through which technology changes the way companies do business, and SBCs also creates industry disruption. A number of these major businesses strategic ‘weapons’ are moving to a point of maturity where they can provide considerable new business value."
However, asserting that SBCs are getting more complex and challenging, the analysts added that they require skillful and often enterprise-wide change management at the transformation level. Many CEOs may find simpler and easier ways to compete and win new business. The path of least resistance may be the barrier to SBC-based business progression, they added.
