Trends in Business & IT
The latest publication of ‘Trends in Business & IT 2012/13’ from the Business & IT Trends institute in the Netherlands contains the latest results from the Society of Information management (SIM) in joint effort with different Academic leaders. The research focused on The US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
The top trends results, based upon findings from 472 organizations, were presented by Jerry Luftman, from the Stevens Institute and author of the book ‘Competing in the Information Age’.
Global Top 5 IT Management concerns were:
- Business & IT productivity
- IT and Business alignment
- Business Agility and speed to market
- Business process management and reengineering
- IT reliability and efficiency
As well as presenting the trends, this Dutch publication presents a number of articles relating to these trends by Industry experts and practitioners. The book concludes with a number of Lessons from the experts. Lesson 1 focused on the need to address the ABC of ICT (Attitude, Behavior and Culture) as the number 1 success and fail factor for organizations trying to address these challenges.
As Jerry Luftman quoted when I met him on one of his world-wind tours the Netherlands. “ABC is fundamental to Business –IT alignment. It begins with the right mindset or attitude: it is not about aligning IT TO the Business or aligning WITH the business; it is about aligning IT AND the business. Alignment is about ensuring the right behaviors and mechanisms are shared and adopted …..It is a culture that recognizes the need for a continuous process of harmony, not a one-time exercise. It is a relationship based upon a mutual understanding, mutual respect, and a shared vision on the future of the business and how IT enables and drives that future.”
The drive for increased productivity and reengineered business processes enabled by IT, coupled with the demand for speed of deployment and agile approaches places increasing demands on the need for ITSM best practices’, as confirmed still by number 5 in the list ‘IT reliability and efficiency’. As ITIL V2011 quite rightly declares ‘ITSM is becoming a strategic Asset’. In order to be successful we must address the ABC issues, within both IT and the Business.
Lesson 1 concludes with how a Business Simulation (Grab@Pizza) can be used to bring IT and Business people to the same table to address the Top 5 issues and at the same time tackle the ABC issues that are preventing many organizations from effectively dealing with these issues.
See how one organization used the simulation to gain insight into weaknesses in their current approach to business and IT alignment and make concrete changes in their program.
The top 4 trends also reveal why 39% of CIOs will be investing in Information management as IT and information become critical business assets. BiSL (Business Information Services Library) is the latest best practice framework, from the ASL BiSL foundation that helps address this area. GamingWorks will working closely with the ASL BiSL foundation and a number of its partners to support a global awareness and positioning of this framework using our BookStore business simulation. See how one group of Business managers used the simulation to help shape their change initiatives.