Selections from the weekly newsletter, “IT News and Events.”
CIO Business Model: Resilience And Transformation Strategy
Massimo Rapparini is Chief Information Officer at Logitech. Massimo leads the global IT function and is charged with implementing a technology strategy targeted at the company's growth opportunities through Digital Business, Employee Collaboration and Product Innovation using Cloud
The CIO of Logitech explains how he approaches issues such as:
Business resilience
Digital transformation
eCommerce strategy
Digital business and the IT operating model
Customer experience
Enabling remote work through virtual collaboration
Massimo Rapparini: The crisis has created almost a magnetic field of pulling all these functions together such that we actually deliver a much coherent journey for our customers and consumers... [CXOTalk, September 27th, 2021]
Technical Architecture: What IT Does For A Living
Building effective IT 101: Technical architecture is what separates a hard-to-navigate pile of tech from accelerating IT's ability to get things done
"Building effective IT 101: Technical architecture is what separates a hard-to-navigate pile of tech from accelerating IT's ability to get things done
Which leads to the question, What constitutes good technical architecture? Or more foundationally, What constitutes technical architecture, whether good, bad, or indifferent?
In case you're a purist, we're talking about technical architecture, not enterprise architecture. The latter includes the business architecture as well as the technical architecture. Not that it's possible to evaluate the technical architecture without understanding how well it supports the business architecture. It's just that managing the health of the business architecture is Someone Else's Problem..." [CIO, September 28th, 2021]
How CIOs Measure Themselves And Why It Matters
CIOs today are focused on front office effectiveness and business model transformation. By necessity this changes how they get measured.
Over the last several years, I have asked CIOs multiple times about how they would like their performance to be measured. One answer has come back repeatedly: They want to be measured the same way as their Chief Executive Officer is measured. Hopefully, this isn't news to anyone reading this piece.
This should really matter to technology sellers. As I mention in my review of 'The Qualified Sales Leader,' John McMahon says, 'account executives need to slow down to go fast. They need to understand the magnitude of their customers' pain and environment.' [eWeek, September 27th, 2021]
CIOs Lead Digital Transformation As Pilots, Co-Pilots, Engineers
The solution: a holistic approach that combines a practical understanding of how to apply organizational change management, some degree of experience operationalizing digital transformation programs, and, most importantly, the right Digital Adoption Platform (DAP). Separating a great plan from great execution is the DAP - it is the part of the process that most organizations execute well, according to a WalkMe-commissioned report by Futurum Research on the current state of digital technology adoption.
"Over the years, the CIO role has evolved from strategic value delivery leader to a co-creator of new businesses. This push is leading to increasing alignment across the C-suite and the opportunity for CIOs to be at the forefront of digital transformation.
This has been the case for CIOs across all industries. Life sciences companies have dramatically accelerated development cycles, consumer goods companies have reinvented direct-to-consumer business models and retailers have organized their supply chains and reimagined their storefronts, to name a few examples..." [SearchCIO, September 29th, 2021]
How CISO Roles Will Change As Customer Trust Becomes Imperative
The trust imperative is the next major shift enterprises will encounter.
"In 2021, digital transformation no longer counts as innovative; it's a baseline expectation for every enterprise. The trust imperative is the next major shift enterprises will encounter. New market leaders will not solely arise from technology platforms, sophisticated analytics, or sophisticated capital allocations. Instead, consumers and business leaders will increasingly turn to companies they can trust. And trust will move markets..." [ZDNet, September 27th, 2021]
CIOs Signal Hybrid Work Will Power Tech Spending Through 2022
Throughout the pre-vaccine COVID era, information technology buyers indicated budget constraints would squeeze 2020 spending by roughly 5% relative to 2019 levels
"But the forced march to digital, combined with increased cybersecurity threats for remote workers, created a modernization mandate that powered fourth-quarter spending last year.
This momentum has carried through to 2021. Although COVID variants have delayed return-to-work and business travel plans, our current forecast for global IT spending remains strong at 6% to 7%, slightly down from previous estimates. But the real story is that chief information officers and IT buyers expect a 7% to 8% increase in 2022 spending, reflecting investments in hybrid work strategies and a continued belief that technology remains the underpinning of competitive advantage in the coming decade..." [siliconANGLE, September 27th, 2021]
5 Key Trends From 2021's Hype Cycle For Customer Service And Support Technologies
Assess these promising technologies to recalibrate your investments
"Automation, contact center technology, proactive service and customer service analytics have become investment priorities for customer support and service (CSS) leaders as COVID-19 drives an increase in customer service demand.
The technologies featured on this year's Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support Technologies largely fall into the aforementioned categories. They enable personalized and contextual customer engagement, improve the working environment for support reps and facilitate customer self-service interactions..." [Gartner, September 28th, 2021]
Digital Transformation Spending Is Up To $700B Per Year, But Results Lag
Annually, an estimated $700 billion in digital transformation spending falls short of delivering on the desired results.
The solution: a holistic approach that combines a practical understanding of how to apply organizational change management, some degree of experience operationalizing digital transformation programs, and, most importantly, the right Digital Adoption Platform (DAP). Separating a great plan from great execution is the DAP - it is the part of the process that most organizations execute well, according to a WalkMe-commissioned report by Futurum Research on the current state of digital technology adoption. [VentureBeat, September 27th, 2021]