the No. 1 priority of the CIOs surveyed in this annual compilation of CIO Insight research.
Will service-oriented architecture take a big step forward next year? Will outsourcing take a step backward? Will businesses finally learn how to measure the value of IT? These are just some of the predictions we make based on a full year's worth of data. Read on to see what kind of year you can expect in 2007.
Strategy: Seeking the Execution Edge
In many ways, these are the good old days again. Most IT executives are focused on growth and customer acquisition, instead of cost reduction. Freshly minted Internet billionaires once again roam the earth, and strategists such as Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, are revealing new ways to profit from the Web. Yet the main goal for enterprise IT isn't strategic innovation—but business process improvement. Why? In part it's because process improvement serves many masters. How else could you increase revenue, reduce costs and improve productivity, all at the same time? And investments in IT architecture and infrastructure make these results possible, sometimes immediately. But there are signs that IT's role in strategy is still too limited. It doesn't help that companies continue to struggle to make information useful and deliver quality service. For now, the pursuit of better execution appears more important than finding new ways to profit from IT.
Strategy (click here for Study details)1. Process improvement will be job No. 1
2. IT works on closing the sale
3. Companies make their Web sites more engaging
4. Customer service gets a tune-up
5. Companies put their mounds of data to work
6. Information governance gains momentum
7. CIOs strive to be strategic
Management: The Metamorphosis Is Underway
Fifty-seven percent of IT executives say their IT departments are going through more change than they've ever seen. Why? Several major changes are taking place simultaneously. The IT function is becoming less separated from the rest of the company. Line managers and staff are changing from being IT's customers to becoming its co-creators. Technologists are being asked to serve as business process experts, project organizers and vendor managers, roles that require leadership and interpersonal skills. Outsourcing is carving away large slices of the traditional IT function, forcing IT executives to focus on minimizing the disruptions while getting better results from vendors. These changes will be painful for many IT professionals, but there will be ample opportunities for those who adapt.
Management (Click here for Study Details)
8. The division between IT and business will diminish
9. CIO compensation keeps climbing
10. IT organizations will keep growing
11. CIOs struggle to find business-savvy technologists
12. Outsourcing changes IT management
13. Outsourcing growth slows
14. Offshoring shifts from India
15. Companies invest in IT leadership
16. Demonstrating ROI will remain a struggle
Security & Risk: The Defense Never Rests
There is no choice: Eternal vigilance against clever hackers, greedy cybercriminals and clueless employees is part of the cost of doing business. But companies can still choose how they defend themselves. Some companies are moving away from Microsoft products. Others have started to treat security as a risk management issue rather than an IT problem: Instead of being a function that installs firewalls and enforces rules, IT security has become part of an overarching strategy of minimizing strategic and legal risks. So far, this broader approach to security is working. Meanwhile, compliance is coming to the end of its run as an urgent priority, since most companies have achieved compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. But there is an important carry-over effect: Companies are still upgrading their financial systems and processes. Most IT executives believe there are still plenty of opportunities for automating the finance function.
Security and Risk (Click here for study details)
17. No abatement of IT security threats
18. Security concerns turn users away from Windows
19. Security morphs into risk management
20. Compliance achieves what government intended
21. Compliance spurs financial process improvement
Technology: Building the Bridge to Tomorrow's Technologies
In the 2006 Top Trends issue, the Technology section was entitled "The Search for the Killer Infrastructure." It looks as if that infrastructure's been found: Mainstream companies are well on their way to adopting Web services and service-based architectures, and moving to virtual servers and storage. These moves are already having an impact on old-school enterprise application suites: Some companies are reconsidering their commitment to older CRM and ERP solutions, and moving back to a best of breed approach to buying applications. But it's not yet clear whether service-based architectures will finally spur companies to get serious about improving data quality, or set the stage for finding more innovative uses of information technology. And even though IT innovation is no longer the sole province of technologists, IT executives remain cautious about user-driven innovation.
Technology (Click here for study details)22. The move to a new architecture marches on
23. Enterprise applications start losing their luster
24. Data quality demands attention
25. IT reluctantly embraces Web 2.0
26. IT innovation loses traction
27. Business process management services and software will frustrate users
28. For business intelligence, the best is yet to come
29. IT organizations start going green
30. Dissatisfaction with vendors is on the rise
