Business-centric mindset is vital

Johannesburg, 07 May 2009

Turning off technology investment during a downturn is counterproductive, but hard times mean technology decisions need to be more business-driven than ever.

This is according to Ken Turbitt, president and CEO of Service Management Consultancy, speaking at ITWeb's recent Executive Forum, hosted in partnership with AL Indigo.

Turbitt warned executives against “technology-driven” investment, saying it was “about time businesses realise why IT is there”.

Instead of reducing tech investment to cope with hard times, business and IT executives should take an “end-to-end look” at business processes, argued Turbitt. When technology decisions are business-driven, the resulting investments can have up to 10 times the impact of a traditional IT cost-reduction strategy, he added.

Agility is key

Agility is the key to getting the most out of tech investment during difficult times, said Turbitt. He told executives that cloud computing is vital at the moment, and not only in terms of virtualisation. SOA, Web services, mobile-to-mobile connectivity, B2B, B2C and other elements of cloud computing are equally important, he told the forum.

Standardisation is another element Turbitt believes can aid business agility. He advised businesses to ensure that applications set to be certified are process compliant. “Regulation and compliance will become a necessity,” he added.

With complexity always on the rise, integration of products and applications will become increasingly important, according to Turbitt. He added that streamlining operations using event-driven technologies will be crucial, along with infrastructure upgrades and “legacy modernisation”.

Most importantly, said Turbitt, businesses need to go all out to exploit the capabilities of enterprise and supply chain edge technologies and business intelligence on consumer lifestyle for product development insights. Hard times are times of change, Turbitt pointed out, and whatever else businesses do, they need to manage change from a business perspective.

Turbitt introduced BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.5 and BMC Atrium 7.5 at the forum.