Recently, I came across a Gartner report on Reimagining IT that talks about CIOs being freed up to focus on enterprise growth and strategic impact. Both of which have eluded CIOs for a number of years.
Yes, interesting that only now are CIOs able to focus on growth and impact. However, I found their strategies for impacting growth to be more interesting. Why? Well, "Improving business processes" was #1 for the last three years, but it dropped to #5 in 2011. What? Have we improved our business processes and no longer need to address them? I doubt it. And I see that the results confirm it. Plus, I think CIOs just don't want to say they're "working on improving processes," because it's potentially cliche or boring or dated. (Granted, some companies have done wonderful things to their processes and they are ready to move on. Congrats.)
Let's look at the top 3...
#1 in 2011: Increasing enterprise growth
OK, how are you going to do that if your processes are out of whack and you're fighting issues with your processes? Good luck. You need solid, yet flexible, processes that support innovation and growth. Good process drives growth. You can call it "increasing enterprise growth," but you know you're just improving your business processes to allow you to grow your enterprise.
And increasing enterprise growth isn't going anywhere. It's projected to be #1 in 2014 also.
What about #2? Attracting and retaining new customers
Customers are demanding better service. Great processes can give your employees the information necessary to better service customers, so they stick around. What processes do you have in place to attract and retain customers? Are you going to ignore your process and throw more people at a customer?
Reducing enterprise costs is #3
Seriously? It's fairly well known that companies have cut resources ("to the bone" as one colleague puts it). Now is the time to reduce costs through better processes! Let your employees do more with the resources they have by delivering information to them or automating non-value add work.
Include your employees in the process planning. They want to be involved. And they've likely got great ideas for improving the process!
So, there you have it. "Improving business processes" has been kicked to the curb, and replaced by three others that are really just disguising reasons to have better processes.
Yes, interesting that only now are CIOs able to focus on growth and impact. However, I found their strategies for impacting growth to be more interesting. Why? Well, "Improving business processes" was #1 for the last three years, but it dropped to #5 in 2011. What? Have we improved our business processes and no longer need to address them? I doubt it. And I see that the results confirm it. Plus, I think CIOs just don't want to say they're "working on improving processes," because it's potentially cliche or boring or dated. (Granted, some companies have done wonderful things to their processes and they are ready to move on. Congrats.)
Let's look at the top 3...
#1 in 2011: Increasing enterprise growth
OK, how are you going to do that if your processes are out of whack and you're fighting issues with your processes? Good luck. You need solid, yet flexible, processes that support innovation and growth. Good process drives growth. You can call it "increasing enterprise growth," but you know you're just improving your business processes to allow you to grow your enterprise.
And increasing enterprise growth isn't going anywhere. It's projected to be #1 in 2014 also.
What about #2? Attracting and retaining new customers
Customers are demanding better service. Great processes can give your employees the information necessary to better service customers, so they stick around. What processes do you have in place to attract and retain customers? Are you going to ignore your process and throw more people at a customer?
Reducing enterprise costs is #3
Seriously? It's fairly well known that companies have cut resources ("to the bone" as one colleague puts it). Now is the time to reduce costs through better processes! Let your employees do more with the resources they have by delivering information to them or automating non-value add work.
Include your employees in the process planning. They want to be involved. And they've likely got great ideas for improving the process!
