IT as we know it could disappear by the end of the decade, killed off by the relentless consumerization of technology.
If it does disappear, that will be a problem, because it’s the chief information officer who is best placed to use technology to change business and break down internal organizational barriers.
These and other thought-provoking ideas about the future of IT came from Forrester Research at its CIO Forum held in London this week.
“CIOs are in a unique and potentially powerful position for business transformation,” VP and principal analyst Marc Cecere told European IT leaders. “After the strategy phase, 80% of the work and activity falls under the role of the CIO, so a strong role for a CIO is a given.”
But, he cautioned, the CIO needs to “to understand their base of power.” By that, Cecere seemed to mean that CIOs need to know how they are perceived by their company — as an order-taker (a “soldier”) or as a more dynamic transformation agent — and act accordingly.