Chief information officers (CIOs) need to do more to ensure IT plays a role in business transformation, especially as this is an environment where 70% of CEOs believe business will transform radically in the next five years.
This is according to research firm Gartner, which has examined business-related questions CIOs should ask for their businesses to succeed in IT implementation and deployment.
Firstly, CIOs need to identify the type of change that is happening. Gartner says: “CIOs must begin by planning ahead for the contingency that a strategic change effort is or will be under way.”
The change may come from the creation of new ventures, dealing with innovation and change, managing mergers and acquisitions, and addressing new competitive pressures.
The second question is 'who is driving the change?'. Research has shown that mainly CEOs or executives in top management drive change in a business. Gartner says these sponsors or major players need to be identified and a line of communication developed so they can be helpful in challenging times or during a strategic change.
Also, CIOs need to identify the deadline for the change, the firm states. “In most cases of strategic change, there is a window for execution for the achievement of the goal,” says Gartner. In light of this, CIOs must keep up to date with viewpoints both within and outside the company, as it is useful to have alternative scenarios at hand should conditions shift, Gartner adds.
Implementing strategies
In terms of implementation, questions of constraints and complexity must be addressed, according to the report. Gartner advises CIOs to ensure they are part of the coalition driving the change and to work to expand it to improve success rates. They must also consider the different constraints within the organisation.
Complexity can be addressed by taking inventory of applications and technology stacks, mapping the applications which are redundant and consolidating them, as well as calculating savings and other benefits. This enables complexity to be taken into account when shifting IT workings.
Organisational questions must also be tackled, says Gartner. CIOs must find out where people are located, and discern how they feel about upcoming change, difficult as it may be.
“CIOs need to focus on the process by which people actively take on a change to the environment to which they have become accustomed.” The firm adds that approximately 10% reach out for change, whole another 10% fully reject it, and CIOs must identify the change seekers and put them into influential roles.
Information officers are also to evaluate the impact on stakeholders, Gartner says. This includes executives who support the change and knowledge workers who, in the event of strategic change, need to shift their way of operating.
Inside the organisation
Another organisational issue needing attention is decision-making during a strategic change. “Governance structures made prior to the change are redesigned and rebuilt to reflect future realities,” says Gartner.
CIOs must have some influence over the decisions, and reach out directly to the stakeholders. They have to make it clear they wish to know which way the decision seems to be heading, and what they can do to accelerate its outcome, or help revive the initiative if rejected, the firm says.
Also in need of questioning, notes Gartner, is the impact on mission-critical processes where they must be taken into account for the change to succeed. Processes include identifying, designing and implementing new systems, and ones associated with sales, service and support.
The final issue Gartner thinks CIOs need to raise when implementing strategic change is the mindset of the organisation and what the future mindset needs to be. It says a major obstacle in change is “resistance of some managers to the idea that cultural mindsets are to be taken seriously,” as management plays the greatest role in determining change's success or failure.
“CIOs need to make sure that the new mindset is materially different from the one [they] want to displace,” the research firm states.
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