Monthly Archive:: January 2018

What A Retail Bank Learned About The Value Of Persistent Teams In Digital Transformation

In digital transformation, it’s an undeniable fact that many companies end up getting nowhere close to hitting their goal. But a major US retail bank undertook a highly strategic project to build the back-end support system for a digital payments transaction platform, and it achieved outstanding results. A compelling high level of productivity. A

Service Providers Basing Margin Expectations on Flawed Math Assumptions

As legacy service providers excelling in the labor arbitrage-factory model look to participate in the digital world of cloud, automation, agile, DevOps and AI technologies, they are basing their prices on flawed mathematics assumptions. They expect that they not only will be able keep the same margin structure they now have but also that

Small service providers becoming heavyweights and outcompeting system integrators

Retail bank’s strategic implementation illustrates new third-party services trend. Why would a large retail bank with access to the largest, most sophisticated systems integrators and fintech firms in the world opt, instead, for a relatively small boutique service provider to build one of its most important systems? This “David vs. Goliath” story caught my

Technology Influence Pendulum Swinging Back to CIOs

For the past few years, the pendulum for control over technology decisions moved into the business, and the stakeholders other than the CIO gained increasing flexibility to deploy technology. Now we’re seeing a bit of a pendulum swing back towards the CIO’s influence. It isn’t that we’re going back to the days in which

Leadership Tips For Driving IT Modernization and Transformation

Digital transformation and IT modernization initiatives require strong leaders to lead an organization through change – and not just technology and process change. Mindsets, organizational principles and policies, as well as combatting resistance to changing the status quo are major activities in these types of initiatives. Recently, I blogged about a highly successful initiative

Three Truths about H-1B Visa Reform

The news about pending immigration and H-1B visa reform in recent weeks plowed anxiety into companies and workers in both the US and India. I’ve closely followed the visa reform movement and blogged about how it was evolving many times since 2013. The buzz in recent weeks was so hot it carried a “the

The approach to IT modernization at NYU Langone Health

A major, complex modernization initiative provides example of two success factors in managing transformational change. I’ve consulted with and observed many organizations undertaking IT modernization initiatives. An organization that achieved impressive results is NYU Langone Health, the academic medical center at New York University. The initiative started with the vision of the chairman of

Enterprises Mistakenly Conflate Approach To IT Modernization and Digital Transformation

  Two important activities are happening today in IT. One is a requirement to modernize IT. The second is digital transformation. These are the types of initiatives happening now in all enterprises. Both are important. Both drive value. Both prepare IT to make a bigger impact on the business, and both lower costs. But

IT Modernization Investments to Dominate 2018

What are the major areas where companies will focus their spend on technology or third-party services this year? What challenges will impact those investments? In reviewing the trends in 2017, I believe we’ll see more of the same this year and an increase in digital adoption. However, I believe we’re at the beginning stages