Let's cut the crap. Information technology is not the value enabler it should be for a business - very often it's still part of the top issues on the leadership priority list. Companies struggle to achieve benefits with their IT investments - a lot. Set aside that companies could even leverage business technology to ínnovate their business, as even "commodity IT" seems to be very difficult to be managed well and to reap the benefits from. How misperceived IT is... But why is IT such a pain? There are three key bottlenecks:
Business and IT mis-alignment. Companies often are totally "lost in translation".
Lock in of legacy systems (technology, organization and process) - sticky stuff within companies that puts a lot of constraints on transformational initiatives
Lack of technology savyness on the leadership level - many organizations still don't have the necessary technology and related transformational and innovation skills onboard (on a leadership level) to effectively guide technology change and govern multi-vendor / multi-technology digital collaboratives.
How to solve this? At Digital Innovation we strongly believe that IT can be demystified and made simpler by a couple of things:
Use an architecture-driven approach to design holistic digital eco-systems that embrace the enterprise and that are founded on clear principles and guardrails, understandable and even governed by "the business".
Use rationalized patterns on the level of technology design that drive integration, sustainability and transparancy across the enterprise - especially applying the principle of "separation of concerns", to avoid the typical "IT-spaghetti".
Build the fundaments and core building blocks first, such as API-management, middleware, robust ERP and transactional engines, implementation of cloud-based, open technologies whenever possible and relevant, and then start innovating with and probing of disruptive technologies.
Onboard and give mandate to business technology professionals ("geeks in a suit") who can drive change and make technology opportunities clear by connecting digital enablers to real-life, impactful business opportunities.
We try to use the above drivers in all of our work. As a consequence, what we deliver are not just "tool" but platforms and technology landscapes that enable agility, efficiency, speed and smart businesses that embrace change and innovation.