Unemployment is more than 10 percent, revenues for
many businesses in technology are down and cost cutting has been the mantra all
year. Gartner suggests that now is the ideal time to take a hard look at how IT
functions within a business and that the coming year will be a game-changer in
many professionals' careers, as long as the moment for change is seized.
How innovative and game-changing should your
technology department be while just coming out of a recession? As much as
possible, suggested Gartner Research in a paper released for its 2009
Symposium/ITxpo 2009 in Cannes, France, which took place last week. In this paper, Gartner outlined 11
areas where IT should be held up to a mirror.
Gartner believes that preparing for a growth
period begins when the challenges are mighty and change is already in the air.
Why not capitalize on change by shifting IT to an expansion of innovative
business practice, of becoming more than a cost center and a contributor to the
bottom line? Gartner thinks companies should look at varied levels of change
including the most extreme transitions possible weighted against less extreme
options to reach the most balanced approach.
“We are now within one of the rarest and most
fleeting periods in business: nearing the bottom of a recession and before a
return to growth,” said Ken McGee, Gartner vice president in a statement. “We
urge organizations to exploit this unusual opportunity to question the efficacy
of their IT business practices and determine whether those practices warrant
change. But they need to act now, by the time business growth returns, they
will be far too busy, and it will simply be too late to change.”
Here are the areas and questions Gartner presses
IT organizations to answer:
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How to take "modernize IT
infrastructure" and take advantage of cloud computing?
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How to improve budgeting?
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How to become the CEO of IT?
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What info should you disclose to executives?
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When should IT managers leave IT?
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Cost savings or business growth?
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How to organize IT support structures?
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Should new CIOs "abandon legacy IT
organizational structures"?
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What innovation will you lead?
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How to prioritize innovation?
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Can you solve one "grand challenge" of
IT by 2013?
Whether companies can afford to make significant
changes in such a challenging economic period is the million dollar question.
In a study on salary trends for 2010 from earlier
this year, Robert Half Technology found that CIOs plan to invest in the
following areas of IT: network administration that can handle cloud computing,
SAAS and VOIP; virtualization; applications and Web development, particularly
for SAAS and Web functionality; and help desk and desktop support. Companies,
however, are looking for managers and workers who have soft skills in business
management.
"Technology professionals must be able to
interact with peers in other areas of the company to ensure cross-departmental business
needs are met. In addition, professionals who understand how IT initiatives tie
to larger business objectives are better able to help firms reduce costs,
increase profitability and enhance efficiencies," said the Robert Half
Technology report.
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