Gartner ITxpo Europe 2015: IT leads the way to business growth

keeshenniphof · ‎11-09-2015

These are interesting times for IT leaders. Not too long ago waves of virtualization and convergence were sweeping through our datacenters. Economic depression increased the demand for cost savings. How to keep the lights on with ever decreasing IT budgets.

Well, no more.

IT in the business driving seat

2016 will be all about technology driven business transformation and IT leaders seizing the reigns of business development and accelerated growth. It's everywhere, in organisations of all sorts, scope and size — business leaders turn to IT when looking for new ways of working, new revenue streams, shorter time to market and data-driven competitive differentiation.

As Peter Sondergaard (Gartner SVP, Global Head of Research) pointed out in his opening keynote of Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Europe this morning, IT leaders will have to overcome inertia oftentimes caused by a combination of lack of innovation (culture) and legacy application landscape (technology).

Digital Transformation at NES

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending some time with the exceptional Christopher Wroath, who is the interim director of digital transformation at the NHS Education for Scotland. Mr. Wroath was one of our keynote speakers at NowForum London 2015 (15 October, ExCeL London), and he will speaking on our behalf here at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo tomorrow (Tue 10 Nov, 3pm, room 110: "NES Digital Transformation — a journey to everything as a service" - see full agenda).

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Christopher Wroath, NHS Education of Scotland, on driving digital transformation at the NHS Education for Scotland.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Rise to the Challenge&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;Gartner picked the theme for this year's Symposium well: Rise to the challenge. Because it will take strong leaders like Mr. Wroath and strong technology like the ServiceNow platform to help organisations navigate the oceans of opportunity ahead.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;This shift goes well beyond the infrastructure layer. Our infrastructures are software-defined, cloud-based, metered. So our software. Next, we focus on the work itself, and the workers doing it. How can we change the way people work? Give people a better work and service experience to help them move faster and increase their contributions to the business. Remove low value tasks by automating, improve the visibility of what's in progress and report on what has been done. Make it easy to understand what's going on and what should be done, by whom, when. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;But easy is hard, isn't it? Getting to easy takes vision, guts and tenacity.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;Create focus on the issue itself&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;Chatting to him in the video green room, Wroath shared an insight that I kept coming back to over the last weeks. In the context of how the ServiceNow platform helps his organisation institute governance, Wroath said that "once you have all processes and data in a single system of record and audit-ready reports start flowing out automatically, you realize that only now can you start focusing on the risk, issue, or bottleneck itself." A single system of record allows IT to cut through the noise and focus on what's keeping the needle from moving faster.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;Single System of Truth&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;To visualize the change his organisation is going through, Wroath displayed a black-and-white photograph of a 19th century classroom full of to be nurses next to a screenshot of the Learning Portal the NHS Education for Scotland created on top of the ServiceNow platform. All schedules, admissions, student and teacher requests are managed through this portal. It's the single system of truth that allows the NHS Education for Scotland to focus what really matters for their business: creating a delightful learning experience for medical professionals in Scotland.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;Removing all bad things&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;Being the visionary IT business leader that he is, Wroath's message is a clear one: "By creating a great service experience and removing all bad things, more doctors, mid-wives and nurses will come to Scotland to be trained. They will join the NHS and help make Scotland a healthier country to live and work in."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 14pt;"&gt;&lt;li-image id="403996" migrate="true"&gt;&lt;/li-image&gt;&lt;li-image id="403997" migrate="true"&gt;&lt;/li-image&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Gartner ITxpo Europe 2015: IT leads the way to business growth

IT in the business driving seat

Digital Transformation at NES

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