January – Organizing IT for the Future
We began 2009 by releasing a publication entitled Organizing IT for the Future sharing both our research findings and our overall sense of where Enterprise IT is heading.  This publication proved popular in helping clients articulate their overall direction and strategy in what is now a rapidly changing business and technology context.

February – IT Spend
With the ever darkening economy, the subject of making informed IT spend decisions naturally reared its head as we launched a dedicated area on our website for all things spend related and ran a web conference laying out a series of actions to illustrate how organizations can quickly put thinking into action and build confidence and trust with senior leaders.

March – Digital Trust
An easy to read guide for business leaders providing an overview of information security in the IT-driven world of today was released in March.  A key finding of the study showed that enterprises that pursue a strategy for increasing digital trust will both create business value and reduce their exposure to risk.

April – IT’s Role in the Global Recession
In the midst of the downturn, we examined IT’s surprisingly important role in the recession and looked at the effects of the current economic climate on enterprise IT.  The paper exposed clients to new ideas and stimulated great discussion, whilst also looking ahead as history shows us deep recessions often clear the way for new and more productive economic landscapes.

May – From the Boardroom to the Cloud
Our 2009 Forum discussed whether business and IT are really organized for the future.  With today’s business leaders being much more focused on the best way to organize IT resources, this intensive day shared the results of our work and integrated the views of business leaders, academics and other forward-looking thinkers.

June – Global Business Collaboration
Assisting clients to develop a greater awareness of business collaboration and creating new ways of working, a short video and executive summary accompanied our report.  The future of business lies in collaboration and in many ways the future of collaboration is in the cloud. 

July – Customer Service Strategies
Recasting this project in the light of the recession, this study helped understand the value that IT can bring in creating attractive business services to better serve customers and provide tactical responses to today’s challenges.

August – Doing Business in the Cloud
A much hyped topic over recent months was distilled into a largely non-technical guide to help clients focus on the real benefits to be gained today from cloud computing such as speed, availability, responsiveness and innovation. 

September – Bridging the Gap Between the CIO and the Board
Always an interesting subject to debate, this report analyzed the range and severity of the risks that organizations face if the CIO and the Board become disengaged, and described how CIOs and Boards can mitigate them and thus in turn position organizations for success.

October – Annual Study Tour
This year’s Tour took over 30 senior executives to the West coast of the US, to look beyond the feasibility of the 2008 discussion of the cloud, and really explore the business opportunities for cost savings, agility and collaboration.  Included in this year’s tour were examples from organizations already active in the cloud who presented and shared their own stories and experiences.

November – Research Commentaries
To complement our report deliverables, concise research and market commentaries were introduced to convey our latest thinking and promote discussion on key business/IT topics.  November’s commentary discussed the accelerating rate of IT change, with cloud computing described as the next phase of consumerization.

December – New Research Domains
As we look forward into 2010, we shall continue to bring a holistic perspective on the influence of IT in shaping the world of work as we look broadly at six key research areas and consider the co-evolution of business and IT. 

What’s in store for 2010

The LEF remains committed to addressing the major challenges at the intersection of IT, management and culture.  If you are interested in becoming a client, please complete the form on this page.

Take a look at our research plans for the year ahead