CIOs Increasingly Partner with Top Executives To Increase Business Competitiveness

CIOs Increasingly Partner with Top Executives To Increase Business Competitiveness

Technology must be a core facet of strategic business design for organizations to continue to grow, drive share and category. Technology-agnostic delivery models focused on the services delivered and business outcomes will, if deployed correctly, drive competitive advantage. The evolution of the CIO from information technology executive representing the business to business executive utilizing all components of technology to drive results, with disruptive technologies and a focus on transformation, not transaction, has never been more critical.

From technologist to technology representative and business advisor

Organizational transformation to meet the challenges of enhanced regulations, a rapidly evolving global customer base with unique generational engagement demands, and a continually morphing competitive landscape demands that a new perspective and engagement model be facilitated for the CIO. CIOs need to influence, and directly engage with the highest executive members including the board.

New customers expect technology focus

The past two decades have seen the information technology function immersed in delivering technology packages that essentially automate manual processes and deliver historical data about performance. Organizations have traditionally reported into the CFO and have been run as cost centers, with the CIO’s role focused on optimizing labor arbitrage while always seeking ways to do more with less. While this was happening the customer expectations and demands changed. Immediate gratification, personalization, an always-connected and always-on mindset, data and more data, peer influence, a social, mobile universe of opportunity have changed how consumers’ and workers’ viewpoints! In order to capitalize on this, innovative companies are realizing that their traditional approaches to technology will not work and that they must transform in order to survive in the long term. CIO engagement in this dialogue as a peer and influencer of strategy may be the biggest challenge the CIO has ever faced, but one never more critical.

Technology is now driving

An effective strategy has always been one centered around driving business value. Alignment of the technology strategy to the business strategy has traditionally been focused on enablement of an already defined business direction. One could possibly argue that this needs to be reversed with the technology strategy now being the catalyst that evolves into the business strategy.

Wavestone US has helped many CIOs assess and transform their IT strategic frameworks, governance structures, and operational processes to meet the sometimes competing demands of the business and emerging trends in IT. We adopt a pragmatic approach to implementing new IT capabilities that balances future needs with short-term improvements and benefits. Many IT transformations are designed to be self-funding, with subsequent phases exploiting the success of prior investments and improvements. To learn what we can do for your organization, visit http://wavestone.us/capabilities.