Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2013 Barcelona: IT in the lead

[errol_rodericks]

Yesterday, I attended the CIO Panel "Leading in a Digital World", here at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Barcelona, led by Gartner's Graham Waller and Mohammed Khalid. Participants: Elisabet Pinilla (AXA), Mike Potter (NHS Blood and Transplant), Kevin Gallagher (Channel 4) and Dave Smoley (AstraZeneca). Three of these panel speakers are Chief Information Officer; Mike Potter of NHS-BT calls himself a Director of Business Transformation Services. Just mr. Potter's title holds most of the panel discussion. Because in the digital age, the technology is finally working and should be applied to transform business, or as Gartner stated: "Now, every budget is an IT budget — but who is going to own and spend it?" Who will harness the Digital Phenomenon and be appointed the Chief Digital Officer, CIO, CMO, COO or CFO? The discussion touched on many angles relevant to ServiceNow prospects and customers — I just wanted to capture the challenges identified by the panel here.

Watch my YouTube video interview with Gartner.

1. The Technology Works
Yes, the technology finally works. Thank Goodness for Apple, I say. Apple created products and interfaces that have changed the business user's expectation of what IT should deliver: user friendly applications (instead of user manuals), an always available online infrastructure and social ways of interacting with the IT department, including chat, blogs, tagging. And because the technology works, IT leaders shouldn't focus on it, but rather on applying the technology to solve business problems. The pressures meanwhile do not change: how do we balance cost efficiency and investing in innovation? The panel agreed that we need to innovate by applying technology to the business; cost effectiveness is the result of applying the right technology.

2. Behaviours have changed
Especially on the demand side, the bar has been raised and it is up to the suppliers — the IT department and its vendors and service providers — to meet the demand. Today, people expect instant mobility, consumerized IT, digital tools to help them be more productive. What is missing, is the end-to-end provisioning of what is expected. Without service brokerage, there is no way IT can play this role of connecting demand and supply. IT needs to align to the business and deliver service at the same time, and it will take some very brave decision making to get there, including clear priority setting, focus on high impact projects, and getting rid of technology that is holding you back.
Dave Smoley encouraged the audience to drive the Cloud trend and let go. "You're not control anyway. Today, everybody with a credit card is a Chief Digital Officer." It is up to IT to guide, support, praise and protect the business in making the right decisions and investments. "When they bring in small vendors, protect them", Kevin Gallagher added. "Small isn't necessarily bad. Understand the pluses and the minuses, put a wrapper around it."
Elisabet Pinilla of AXA urged the audience to manage priorities, find the balance between now and later, try to get ahead of the curve by creating an innovation budget. Be ready for the demand of the business. Walk in other man's shoes, make an effort to understand the question behind the question: What is it that the business really needs, without being detracted by the technology questions? Kevin Gallagher added: "What's working is working. Focus on the downstream, on what needs to be addressed."

3. Titles have to change
Mike Potter of NHS Blood and Transplant, who recently signed on as a ServiceNow customer, said: "The IT function has to change, our titles have to change. This is not about IT any more. If IT is only about technology, you will be marginalised and eventually integrated with the finance department. No, it is about how to apply IT to transform and better enable the business. That is a scary journey to embark on as an IT organisation. With ServiceNow, I feel I can live up to my title of Business Transformation Director. To get started, we picked a high-impact project, case management in an HR context, including live chat, blogging, gathering feedback with end user surveys. ServiceNow is my best quality and quickest IT project ever."
Dave Smoley of AstraZeneca added: "Who else if not IT is going to do it? IT is the only department with end-to-end visibility of the business, including finance, logistics, sales, marketing and so on. We are the right department to drive business transformation."

ServiceNow is still considered to a small cloud-based software vendor. Small is not bad and clearly the cloud is it. We enable IT organisations to drive business transformation both downstream (the interaction between IT and the business) and upstream, where we help you manage the service relationships with your vendors and suppliers in this highly digitalised world.

I will tell you all about it during my speaking session, today at 10am in room 117. Feel free to download and share my slides below. I look forward to your questions and feedback!