Increasing productivity, unlocking new revenue opportunities, and powering competitive advantage Driving radical business transformation For many years, IT was focused almost exclusively on managing technology—in other words, keeping the lights on. Now, IT is expected to align with the business and become an equal partner in business success, increasing productivity, unlocking new revenues, and powering competitive advantage. Transformation is about creating radical new business value. For example, think about the internet of things (IoT). If your company manufactures consumer products, how do you connect them to the internet to create new value? Perhaps it’s an oven that contacts your support team when it’s about to fail or outside trash cans that let local sanitation departments know when they need to be emptied. That’s truly radical transformation. Transformation is the new mantra of IT organizations No one knows technology better than IT. That’s why IT is uniquely positioned to lead, generating revolutionary ideas and bringing them to fruition. 2 Technology is at the forefront of transformation No one knows technology better than IT. That’s why IT is uniquely positioned to lead, generating revolutionary ideas and bringing them to fruition. This applies across industries, whether your company is in manufacturing, financial services, retail, transportation, or any other sector. It’s an unprecedented opportunity, but for many IT organizations driving transformation is an enormous challenge. Let’s be clear. IT still has to keep the lights on. It’s a matter of survival. Yet, there’s a dilemma. When you spend most of your time surviving, there’s no time to transform. How do IT organizations strike a balance between carving out budget for transformation while still delivering operational excellence? And remember—this isn’t a zero-sum game. Transformation drives additional operational demands as new capabilities move into production. How do IT organizations strike a balance between carving out budget for transform while still delivering operational excellence? 3 Given IT’s central role in transformation, one thing is certain: It’s no longer acceptable to spend 80% or more of IT budgets just keeping the lights on. IT organizations recognize this. It’s one key reason why so many are adopting a cloud-first strategy. By lowering the overhead of deploying and managing IT infrastructure, the cloud frees up some of that time and money running the business and gives IT organizations the opportunity to align with the business and support their transformation. Yet, the cloud is just part of the puzzle. While the cloud has the potential to increase velocity in the short term and lower costs in the long term, it’s enabling technology, not a blueprint for fundamental IT transformation. To truly align with the business—and deliver business value—IT needs to transform itself. Driving transformation in a cloud-first world It’s no longer acceptable to spend 80% or more of IT budgets just keeping the lights on. 4 Creating business alignment Most IT organizations begin this transformational journey by trying to lower operational costs and the amount of time their resources spend in this area. That makes perfect sense, and we’ll come back to that later. But ask yourself this: If you could wave a magic wand and instantly free up 40% of your IT budget and time, what would you do with the money? And equally important, why? How do you align with the business and make the best choices? And what roadblocks lie in your way? How do you: 1. Capture business demands—creating a clear understanding of business needs? 2. Make the right investments—prioritizing demands to maximize business returns? 3. Lead the transformation curve—identifying radical new opportunities to create business value? 4. Measure and manage business outcomes—ensuring that your investments are delivering value? Let’s look at each of these individually. 5 For many IT organizations, identifying and tracking investment opportunities is a huge challenge because they have no easy way of capturing incoming demands, and it’s typically a bottoms-up annual exercise.