Comments on: Reflections on 2007 – En Route to 2017

By: itorganization2017

itorganization2017 — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:38:04 +0000

You raise an interesting and compelling point – the linkage of IT and Marketing. I could make similar points about the linkage of IT and HR (leveraging talent through the emerging Web 2.0 technologies); linkage of IT and supply chain (increasing supply chain velocity and efficiency); and so on. IT is permeating all facets of the business, requiring new forms of collaboration and partnership between the IT organization and the business it serves – I’ve referred to this in prior posts as “business-IT convergence.” Unfortunately, achieving this is easier said than done! Perhaps we’ll see more real success stories in 2008…
Thanks again, Janet, for your comments and insight!

By: Janet Johnson

Janet Johnson — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:54:21 +0000

Thanks for the clarifications on all points. As a customer of IT (VP Marketing) I appreciate the focus in the near term on business analytics as well as the notion of more differentiating and satisfactory customer experiences. I believe IT and marketing are linked more now than they’ve ever been before, and we have so much to gain from each others’ efforts.

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By: Reflections on 2007 - En Route to 2017 (Part 2) « IT Organization Circa 2017

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:57:37 +0000

[...] Posts Did You Accidently Outsource Your Enterprise Architecture?CIO vs. CTO – What’s The Difference?Reflections on 2007 – En Route to 2017IT Maturity and the Role of Relationship ManagementBusiness-IT Maturity: Theory Of The Case – Part [...]

By: itorganization2017

itorganization2017 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:42:58 +0000

Excellent question, Janet! First, yes, I do think that my 2nd and 3rd “predictions’ are linked (actually, I think these are really observations, rather than predictions, based upon what I see in my client and research bases).

While I agree wtih your question about it perhaps being “too early to prove business value”, a couple of points: First, the way most organizations track and measure the business value, there is very little that is actually “proven” in terms of business value, but we continue spending billions, presumably based upon some sense that the spending is cost-justified. Second, there is value in many of the experiments organizations are conducting around Web 2.0 technologies – even if those experiments simply highlight the organizational change management implications of deploying these tools.

To your initial question, among the higher value activities I foresee IT organizations focusing on are business analytics, business simulation and modeling, moving to more agile business process architectures, and increased focus on shaping a more differentiating and satisfactory customer experiences.

By: Janet Johnson

Janet Johnson — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:51:12 +0000

What kinds of “higher business value” activities do you predict IT orgs to focus on? Do you believe the coupling of your second- and third- predictions will be inherent? e.g. will IT get out of PC support activities and into testing collaborative tools like enterprise RSS systems and other productivity tools for knowlege workers; or do you think it’s too early to prove a business value for them?