IT Organizational Practices Are the Catalyst for Future Readiness
While successful converged infrastructure, cloud, and BDA strategies are the technological underpinnings of future-ready organizations, effective and aligned IT organizations are also essential.
An effective IT organization contains the right people with the right skills to implement and maximize the benefits of those technologies. To move up the future-ready spectrum, the IT organization must increasingly work strategically with every line of business (LOB).
Organizing to be fully responsive to LOB requirements is the critical first step to move along the future-ready enterprise journey. Future Creators’ IT organizations do a better job supporting business needs than companies at other levels, with 98% citing high levels of support for business needs, compared with only 43% of Current Focused (see Figure 9). In high-performing organizations, IT is working effectively with LOB to identify new ways to use technology to move the business forward.
Current Focused
(n = 417)
Future Aware
(n = 836)
Future Focused
(n = 816)
Future Creators
(n = 417)
Future Creators Have a “Continuous Improvement” Approach to IT
Just as with their technology infrastructure, Future Creators continually work to improve their IT departments. This includes regularly and continuously improving the skills of the IT staff and measuring the success of the IT organization through the lens of the LOB stakeholders.
Organizations that maximize the value they receive from technologies like sophisticated converged IT infrastructures, cloud, and BDA consistently include training as part of the strategic planning and key initiatives. In fact, 98% of Future Creators incorporate IT employee training into IT’s overall strategic planning and key initiatives, compared with only 35% of Current Focused.
In addition, organizations with the best IT utilization measure their service performance against that of other firms. Future Creators are three times more likely to track and competitively benchmark IT service levels on key metrics compared to Current Focused (see Figure 10). This leads to more continuous improvements and ultimately leads to better partnerships with various LOBs.
Current Focused
(n = 417)
Future Aware
(n = 836)
Future Focused
(n = 816)
Future Creators
(n = 417)
The focus on continuous improvement for both technologies and IT organizational practices suggests the journey never ends for future-ready enterprises. Successful organizations are constantly creating, innovating, and adapting to maintain their competitive advantage.
Pitfalls to Avoid
Achieving greater levels of future readiness does not come without risks and pitfalls to avoid. These include:
- Going in without a plan. Companies need to be deliberate and thoughtful about their approach to becoming more future ready. Becoming future ready involves more than simply throwing new technology into the IT organization. It requires having in place the organization, skills, and practices to take advantage of that technology, and it requires that the technology support critical business initiatives.
- Proprietary lock-in. Key to being future ready is the flexibility to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. Locking into a proprietary offering or framework limits the organization’s flexibility and increases the risk of choosing a technology dead end.
- Big bets. Organizations should take a stepwise approach to improving their future readiness, building incrementally on the IT infrastructure and practices they have in place. With so much of the business dependent on IT, upgrading the infrastructure amounts to performing an organizational heart transplant. Wholesale change-outs while promising the ability to leapfrog to the front of the pack also introduce risks that could impact the business.