5 Digital Technologies Shaping IT Priorities

Technology remains an underutilized key in realizing business goals, but with the growing embrace of digital technologies that could be changing. According to a recent Gartner survey of over 2000 CIOs, digital technologies are reaching a “tipping point” among business executives.[1]

While Gartner reports that businesses realize on average about 43 percent of technology’s business potential, that number could be on the rise. Executives are realizing the need to adjust investment in IT and IT strategies with the goal of more effectively utilize technologies to realize business goals. “Digital technologies provide a platform to achieve results, but only if CIOs adopt new roles and behaviors to find digital value,” said Mark McDonald, group vice president and Gartner Fellow.

McDonald continues, “IT needs new tools if it hopes to hunt for technology-intensive innovation and harvest raised business performance from transformed IT infrastructure, operations and applications. Without change, CIOs and IT consign themselves to tending a garden of legacy assets and responsibilities.” This means that CIOS and IT staff must be prepared to assume new responsibilities and explore solutions for producing great results.

“Reacting to limited budgets by restructuring costs, outsourcing and doing more with less made sense from 2002 to 2011, when the supply of innovative technologies was scarce,” explains Dave Aron, vice president and Gartner Fellow. Adapting to, and leading, in the digital world requires doing things differently, yet in ways consistent with the demands of digital technologies. CIOs need to make the case that mainstream emerging mobile, big data, social and cloud technologies justify revisiting IT budget and investment levels.”

These five digital technologies are expected to disrupt business practices over the next 10 years, and it is essential for IT to be prepared to strategically lead the way.

1. Mobile technology – Mobility offers renewed challenges in security and resource management but also opens new opportunities for business productivity, collaboration and customer engagement.
2. Analytics and business intelligence – Over the last decade BI has begun to play a fundamental role in e-commerce and certain aspects of the overall business structure. The challenge ahead is leverage this tool for strategic planning and investment throughout the business structure.
3. Big data – The coming challenge for businesses is to scale up in teams and tools to utilize the growing potential of big data in the business.
4. Social – The growing social landscape presents both challenges and opportunities. Companies need to strategically consider the possibilities for social apps and tools that increase collaborative efforts within the business, with business partners and even with customers.
5. Cloud (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS) - The implementation various cloud computing solutions continues at all levels of the business world from SMBs to Enterprise.

Each of these disruptors offer great potential but also requires both strategic and financial investment from CIOs, Technology Directors and IT staff. Integracon is working with our clients to consider the impact of these and other technologies in the various business markets. From infrastructure development to strategic planning and implementation, Integracon can help your business face the emerging IT challenges. Call us today at 865-330-2323 or chat online at Integracon.com.

[1] “Gartner Executive Program Survey of More Than 2,000 CIOs Shows Digital Technologies Are Top Priorities in 2013.” Gartner Press Release, January 16, 2013

 Big data image thanks to Marc Smith at Flickr (Creative Commons).