CIO Archive

Companies Consistently Run into Problems in Automation Efforts

It’s very clear that robotics process automation (RPA) and cognitive computing have tremendous capacity to digitize our workforce and reduce the number of back-office FTEs. Leading companies are looking at doing this in a big way, looking to automate thousands of jobs that have been performed by FTEs. But they consistently run into a

A Key Factor in the CIO’s Ability to Drive Change

I recently met with a major player in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, and the company is incredibly frustrated with how developments are evolving. They pointed out the promise of the IoT but said it’s not evolving much beyond the use case of predictive maintenance. It seems people are In Denial (ID). Why

Why Service Level Agreements are Dead

Service-level agreement (SLA) contracts can drive the wrong business outcomes. Some technology leaders want to move away from those SLA-driven contracts. If you’re like many CIOs, the chances are your company compensates third-party IT service providers for something they didn’t do or pays them twice for something. Technology leader Nipa Chakravarti realized that’s what

How to Shape Your IT-as-a-Service Strategy

ITaaS is a game-changer, a radically different way to manage IT. Here’s what you need to consider before making the switch. If you’ve read a couple of my blogs about the IT-as-a-Service model, you probably realize it’s a game-changer. To refresh your memory, it maximizes the value IT delivers because it aligns IT much

Do IT Groups Really Need to Move to a Software-Defined Environment?

CIOs and their IT teams are bombarded with major changes on nearly every front these days. Shifting to a software-defined environment is one of the top agenda items in many enterprises. But what does this shift in operations really mean? Are the benefits really worth the headaches of major operational change? We are in

CIOs Need to Reconceive the Process Design for IT Support Services

I’ve been observing the end-user computing environment and believe it’s time for a complete rethink on how IT groups support their end users. What I usually find is that the support interactions are a lot like support interactions with cable companies – and most cable company customers feel that’s an infuriating experience. Cable companies

Whiteboard vs Keyboard Services

I recently went to dinner with a CIO who talked about having two major service providers in his company’s portfolio – an Indian provider and Accenture. He told me he uses both providers aggressively. We were talking about the fact that both providers have similar rate cards, large numbers of offshore workers, and they

Sell Digital Services, Not Apps Rationalization

After coming back from Nasscom and discussing the inflection change coming to the services industry, I’ve observed a lot of service providers preparing for the shift – especially the apps providers. But I see them making a mistake: putting too much emphasis on apps rationalization and rearchitecting. It’s not that apps rationalization and rearchitecting

Old Wine in Old Wineskins

A famous teaching of Jesus explains that it’s a mistake to pour new wine into old wineskins because it will burst the skins and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. New wine belongs in new wineskins. I think we’re seeing this principle playing out in technology – where the consequences are

Better Together

At Everest Group we’ve noticed a growing trend in our client base. As I’ve blogged before, business stakeholders have become increasingly independent and make independent decisions. Mostly they have adopted point solutions, standing up functionalities and making decisions to use SaaS products and developing their own skunk works, agile teams to develop fast functionality.