IT Strategies Shift Toward Revenue Growth

Trend 6: IT Strategies Shift Toward Revenue Growth

BI/‌BA and big data represent just one of many ways thattechnology investments are increasingly being viewed as business-growthinvestments?a trend we expect to be a major story in 2012.

?I have many conversations about the shift from cost-cuttingto business innovation, which includes a renewed focus on revenue-generation,?says Phil Garland, CIO Advisory Services leader at consultancy PwC. ?IT?s rolenow includes helping the business figure out how cloud, social, mobility andother emerging technologies can advance the business.?

Our study shows the market-making potential of informationtechnology increasing in 2012. While support levels for a contrasting businessgoal?lowering costs?have remained flat within IT, the user community andfinance, the support for using IT to promote revenue growth has grown strongly.Leveraging the cloud, for example, has now gone far beyond its originallyperceived benefit of efficiency and cost control. Says Garland: ?Aforward-thinking CIO today is partnering with business unit leaders, R&Dorganizations and so forth to help think of ways to leverage the
cloud and create new products and services.? That, in turn, creates revenueopportunities.

The source of this trend may be the personal experiences ofbusiness leaders with their own social networks, mobile devices andself-provisioned apps. ?There?s definitely a blend of personal applicationswith the business side,? says Garland. ?An example of that would be on thesocial side with collaboration applications. This accessible technology opensthe eyes of business to the possibilities, but to put it into effect, you needIT.?

 

For more, read Baseline’s Top 10 Business Trends of2012.