Information technology executives agree it's critically important to understand the concerns and priorities of the CEO. I recently read a survey indicating that a main concern of CEOs is resisting the urge to tap the breaks on hiring, investing, M&A, and growth initiatives due to over-coverage of global and U.S. financial gloom and doom. How can IT help? It's essential to prioritize funding to projects that favorably address these concerns and to not relent on what you know is a solid business/tech strategy despite the potentially limited availability of IT funding. It’s not only about ROI - you have to be convinced that the investment will lead to differentiation.
In this post, I’ll focus on a few areas of attention where CIOs can add tremendous value. In follow-up posts, I’ll add some others.
Focus on the data… Invest in technology and intelligence that leverages data. With today’s excellent batch of analytics technologies, CEOs can make informed - and even real-time - decisions about where to allocate resources, how to move faster, and what needs immediate attention.
Automate… Invest in automation technology to reduce processing costs, streamline process accuracy (minimizing rework), and increase efficiency, all of which free up capital and people for growth projects. Automation also helps to make more informed decisions by (a) identifying how to instrument the process to generate key metrics (don’t neglect this step), then to (b) use those metrics for real-time data and analytics.
Use the cloud more… Cloud-based solutions help with agility and adaptability. It allows processes to scale up or down quickly in response to changing market conditions. It helps reduce IT costs by eliminating infrastructure capital and outsourcing operations management.
Be Customer Facing… Whether it’s relationship management toolset, marketing content and web sites or eCommerce, now is the time to understand where your customers are heading. This climate gives you the opportunity to analyze your data and make the necessary adjustments.
So there are ways to fund projects that favorably address a shaky economic outlook, so you can come out of the downturn stronger. IT leaders can help stay ahead of the curve and navigate effectively by working together with the
CEO and the rest of the leadership team. It’s the IT executives’ responsibility to ensure that technology investments are aligned with the strategic goals of the business and drive long-term growth and success. More in the next post! Please leave some comments & let me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading! Best, Tony
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