Consultant Discerns Subtle Trend: Shocks Business Community

April 30, 2009

I found “A Value Focus for Enterprise IT” here a darned remarkable write up. Andrew Parker reported:

Recently, Forrester Research has been picking up signals of a shift in mindset among IT executives. For weeks after the credit crunch hit, most IT leaders welcomed “survive the recession” advice. But, after months of firefighting, downturn fatigue has set in. No one thinks our troubles are over, but apparently many IT leaders feel they have taken ­ or at least defined ­ the steps needed to support business stability in the short term. Now they want to refocus on more thoughtful topics.

The economic news has been reasonably easy to figure out. I am not able to summarize the entire write up. But I can highlight one of the consulting firm’s findings about the impact of the economy on information technology:

IT leaders must drive value individually. The CIO and direct reports must engage with business leaders to identify and execute on areas of value delivery. Inside the IT group this means leading by example ­ for instance, by devoting time to business issues and prominently featuring business impact in internal communications. Outside IT, building personal networks across the wider business, and marketing IT activities to business leaders.

I was thinking that IT budgets are going to be under scrutiny, managers who muff their numbers will be out of work, and procurements will be under great pressure to deploy systems that * actually work *. I did not know that the economy was bad. Thank you, consultants and journalists for this insight.

Stephen Arnold, April 30, 2009

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