Charting A Digital Transformation: Are You Ready?

When Digital Possible is viewed in the context of service management, it throws the spotlight on the traditional silo-based approach to managing IT and communications services, which has increased complexity and operating costs in step with the rise in technology adoption. The future of digital IT service management will be defined by the ability to manage your network, IT assets and applications from one solution, regardless of what it is, where it is and who is managing it. This requires a solution that isolates the fault domain in the first instance, in a matter of seconds – one that will also offer application visibility and control. True digital service integration calls for better visualization of the service layers which are ICT vendor-agnostic.

Without exception, every CIO considers the digitisation of business to be a personal priority. As a result, CIOs are measuring the success of their organisations against different KPIs compared with 12 months ago.

The disruptive impact of these trends requires a CIO skill-set that embraces faster-paced change. The CIO and IT team are transforming to be more of an enabler and innovator than the command and control centre. Internally, they are also leading, leveraging and managing the rapidly growing ecosystem of partners and vendors. Flexibility around new business needs, faster adoption of technology trends and more agile working practices are now regarded as the CIO’s crucial assets.      

Despite the fast-changing CIO role, old practicalities and pressures remain. Nearly two in three senior IT decision makers feel the CIO is forced to spend more time maintaining current IT systems, than to search for new solutions.

Senior IT decision makers polled also cited pressures from the digital transformation creating new challenges for the CIO, such as implementing digital strategy organisation-wide, developing new business models to cope with increased connectivity and engagement, and finding the right talent.

Our survey shows that many business leaders driving digital transformation are not in IT, with almost one-fifth of IT spending in the next two years taking place outside the IT department. The relationship between IT and the increasingly empowered end-user is more complex. However, CIOs are not threatened by this and see it as an opportunity for IT to work better in partnership with other parts of the organisation. 

As champions of positive change, CIOs are seeing their IT function become a key enabler across the organisation. The IT team’s new role sees it adapting to give the business flexibility, while ensuring data security, robust infrastructure and efficiencies of scale across the organisation.

Welcome to the digital CIO

Technology has never been more vital, with one CIO telling us that “This is the age of the network”.

Today, CIOs need to be strategic, creative, growth-oriented and cost-conscious. They need to understand both technology and people, and balance control with empowerment. The most successful CIOs are embracing change rather than resisting it.

This makes the digital CIO one of the most demanding roles in business today.

At BT, we are listening to what our CIOs are telling us – and using their views to steer us in our Cloud of Clouds investments, to support their needs and ambitions in the digital era.