Guest post by Steve Chaffee, Solution Architect
“So, the CIO walks into the CEO’s office…”
DON (CIO): “Hey, boss…what’s up?”
CLAIRE (CEO): “Sit down.”
DON: Gulp.
CLAIRE: “Relax. I just wanted to discuss your IT budget proposal for the new fiscal year.”
DON: “I know it’s higher than last year’s, but we’ve cut three years in a row. There’s been a huge explosion of data, and it’s coming from everywhere – it’s all we can do to keep up!”
CLAIRE: “Oh, I know it’s been challenging, but…”
DON: “I think we can squeeze a little more to offset the cost of new servers in the data center…”
CLAIRE: “Stop.”
(Startled, Don sees she’s serious.)
CLAIRE: “Don, explain to me how our company’s IT enhances our business strategies.”
DON: Don replies smugly, “We brought the Exchange upgrade in under budget, and the desktop replacement project is finally complete …”
CLAIRE: “Don, please…just listen for a minute, and let me get more specific:
- Can we trust our own information to make mission-critical decisions?
- Do our reports reflect past performance or do they look forward, for opportunistic decision support?
- Do any of these investments in IT deliver measurable improvements to our profitability, or is it just supporting a growing status quo?”
DON: “Wow…didn’t see that coming.”
CLAIRE: “Look, I see companies getting knocked off because they didn’t foresee game-changing, IT-powered innovations from competitors. Frankly, it seems we’re just feeding an already-bloated monster.”
DON: “What exactly are you saying?”
CLAIRE: “I need you to shift the IT emphasis … and energies… toward growth-enabling initiatives. Not just stashing more data, but business agility.”
DON: (Thinks to himself, “Who’s going to manage day-to-day operations?”)
Narrator: What do you think? Is this conversation happening in your organization today and is it Ripe or is this just a bunch of Hype?
[poll id=”199″]