Gartner Symposium ITxpo: A quest for rapid results
Gartner Symposium ITxpo has moved on from real-time enterprise and conquering complexity to "rapid results." I’m not sure it’s a logical progression, but the three concepts are important to delivering successful results from IT investments. After listening to Gartner's executives and analyst explain the rapid results theme in the opening keynote presentation, I was still not clear on what it meant. Reducing the complexity of implementing, operating and using IT systems is straightforward. A real-time enterprise--providing essential data and analytics in real time, anywhere and on any device is clearly desirable. Rapid results seems a bit vague.
I asked Gene Hall, CEO of Gartner, his definition of rapid results. He said it means different things to different people. Fair enough. He then offered a more precise take, saying that rapid results is delivering business impact from IT in less than 18 months. Sounds like ROI.
I then asked Peter Sondergaard, global head of research at Gartner, the same question, and he replied that rapid results involves aligning IT with the business objectives, which trickle through to management of projects. He recommended scaling down projects that aren’t strategic, and operating from a lifecycle perspective. More ROI and strategic planning. Gartner analyst Andy Kyte said enterprises need to deliver rapid results on two fronts—responding to tactical change and applying in new operating models. So, rapid results is also about using IT to become more agile.
I think the Gartner researchers are stretching with this latest Symposium theme. Hall told me that the rapid results theme came from a survey of 600 CIOs. Certainly, CIOs are feeling pressure to deliver results to management. They want to keep their jobs. In another Gartner survey, 67 percent of CIOs said their jobs were at risk. Delivering ROI in shorter time cycle or focusing on projects that will yield results that further the business will help them keep their jobs. That's old news. From my perspective, rapid results is about delivering to the end customer, employees or partners the information and services they need in a way that allows them to produce rapid results...