Digital change continues to have a disruptive impact on the enterprise, but as the chief information officer (CIO) sitting at the center of a digital transformation, you may be watching your role shift in your organization. New opportunities for improvements in productivity, cost reduction, and customer experiences mean that you are far from your original role in your enterprise.
CIOs grappling with major changes to enterprise IT may find themselves at a strategic crossroads, but it’s important to consider a variety of factors playing a role so that you can navigate these changes and offer value to your organization:
Driving business initiatives: Rather than just keeping the lights on, enterprise IT is gaining a seat at the table for board meetings as business leaders look to the CIO to direct the technology innovations that help gain an edge over the competition. From improved customer experiences to strategic networking that enables upgrades to communications, collaboration software, and a fleet of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, enterprise IT is an important contributor to enterprise success.
Integrating innovations: While artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and blockchain have dominated the headlines, CIOs are seeing that these innovations are more likely to begin appearing as an integrated set of features in the upgrades of existing tools. This is in contrast to what was originally expected of this technology, with standalone tools offering unique capabilities.
CIOs see that the value to be gained from these innovations exists in their collective contribution and how they will impact data analysis and cyber security technologies, enhance or create low-friction experiences for customers, and shorten the time to achieve value for investments.
Challenges: Digital change has been met with some resistance in the enterprise, with many companies exhibiting a reluctance to disrupt business processes, even when there are significant gains possible. This new role for CIOs — needing to champion an emerging set of principles for driving business innovation — is not always a perfect fit, and many have had to push themselves out of their comfort zone in order to coax others there as well.
In addition, CIOs are eyeing the possibilities for what disruption may follow digital change. After witnessing the resistance to transformation, many wonder whether their organization could weather another major pivot in business practices and priorities.
Some CIOs see an answer to this challenge in the current environment of digital change. Rather than remaining in a position seen as owning and leading the operational side of IT, CIOs can shift to a function in which they leverage technology to improve operational processes.
Want to talk further about what’s coming next after digital change? Contact us at Diversified Technology Group, where we have an eye on the horizon of technology and can help you navigate the innovations that will impact your organization in the future.