Despite the fragile global economy, the IT marketplace continues to flourish. The ability of information technology to virtualize all manner of previously physical products, services, and activities means that IT usage can rapidly increase even during recessionary times. This is why US IT unemployment is less than 4 per cent, while the national figure remains over 9 per cent.
While there is the risk of a second Internet bubble, the combination of mobility, social media, the cloud, and the whole as-a-service movement has clearly revitalized the IT landscape. Just as the minicomputer, PC and Internet eras all spawned major new companies, technologies and applications, so are today’s technologies enabling a whole new generation of digital game-changers. In this opening session, David will describe today’s overall business and IT environment, and provide a glimpse of the most promising new information technologies, platforms, and applications.
Social media has entered the workplace the way the PC did – dragged in by employees at the edges of the organization. Another similarity with the PC is that the longer it is around, the more uses and functions it acquires. While social media presents new IT risks, it also presents new opportunities for more communication among customers, among employees, and between customers and employees.
These kinds of conversations are disproportionately likely to produce innovative ideas. In this session, Clay will present examples of how social media is being effectively used in businesses today, and discuss how IT can help position social media as a platform for innovation across the firm.
For more than 90 years, Pitney Bowes has been a world leader in providing mail equipment and services. Today, they have over two million customers around the world. For much of its history, Pitney’s equipment was electro-mechanical in nature. But today, not only are mailing equipment and services highly computerized, but a new generation of services – such as online stamps, QR codes, and do-it yourself mail services – are increasingly Internet-based.
To support its current and emerging needs, Enterprise IT must shake off its traditional back office culture and help the firm develop and rollout a wide range of hi-tech products and services. In this session, Donna will discuss the many business, organizational, and cultural challenges that have emerged as Pitney seeks to support the distribution and mailing needs of the future.
As the use of digital and social media grows, marketing organizations find themselves under increasing pressure to develop new demand generation models and platforms. Historically, marketing has been dependent on IT for many of its database, email marketing and web hosting needs, but the relationship has often been awkward both culturally and strategically, with many marketing organizations preferring to use outside marketing/IT consultancies where possible.
Our research has shown that Enterprise IT’s relationship with marketing is significantly weaker than with other major parts of the firm such as finance, administration, supply chain and production. Given the many marketing/IT opportunities ahead, this situation must be significantly improved. In this session, Frank will present the strategies and practices that our clients are adopting as they seek to become more market aware and data-driven.
The tremendous success of the iPhone, iPad and Android-based products have made it clear that we have now entered a Post-PC IT era. With so much choice between desktops, laptops, thin clients, netbooks, tablets, smart phones, and commodity phones, the traditional IT approach of ‘one-size fits all’ is no longer valid.
In this session, Doug will share our research into how organizations are managing the growing demand for device-neutral systems, individual employee choice and, increasingly, employee device ownership, even as traditional requirements for standardization, control and security remain. This increasing movement toward Do-It-Yourself (DIY) computing will be a major step towards the demise of the traditional IT nanny state.
In this session, we will identify the skills, competencies and organizational models that Enterprise IT must develop and retain to fulfil the changing missions described during the previous sessions. In this session, Richard and Kirt will discuss:
• The need to be more analytical and data-driven.
• The rise of ever more sophisticated forms of digital marketing.
• The demands of double-deep, IT-savvy employees for modern IT tools.
• The increasing importance of embedded technology.
• The need for improved vendor management to cope with the rising dependence on third party suppliers.
Consistent above average real business growth for more than four years is the exception not the rule. In studies of those rare high performance organizations, a key finding was that technology was both a growth enabler and a growth driver. In a global business environment characterized by volatility, risks, speed, constant learning and change, mass customization, and fleeting competitive advantage, is technology a prerequisite to consistent high performance?