The Function of IT in Business Transformation

@headspring
The Function of IT in Business Transformation
New Research Findings on Roles, Risks,
and Rewards
InnoTech Austin

@headspring
The discipline of “business transformation” has the power to
invigorate the organization. In this era of the “digital enterprise,” IT
has the opportunity to become a key contributor to revenue and
business improvement.
In this session, new research will benchmark best practices so that
astute leaders will be able to prioritize projects, measure
improvements, and link business successes.
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Agenda
•  Your IT Organization Should Benchmark Business Transformation
•  Research Discovery Benchmarks
o  Size of company
o  The inﬂuence of other executive stakeholders
o  Your role
o  Your relationship with vendors
•  Recommendations
•  Q&A
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Your IT Organization Should Benchmark
Business Transformation
IT in Business Transformation
Get the research report for free at:
headspring.com/innotech-bt

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IT is at Risk of Losing Relevance
“Digital dexterity” is bulldozing
expectations of IT’s relevance in
the digital enterprise:
•  Digital workplace strategy
•  Change management
•  Shadow IT
•  Bimodal IT infrastructure
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AppDev is Business Transformation
•  The “digital enterprise” requires that every LOB leverage technology systems in the quest for
business improvement (proﬁt, eﬃciencies, experiences)
o  Every business is a digital business
o  Your business can change only as fast as your technology
o  The structure of today’s solution determines tomorrow’s speed of change
Source: Forrester Research, April 2015
•  Technology leaders are inundated with buzzwords and “trends” that have diluted the urgency
o  And there’s real urgency – for example, 86% of multinational company CEOs identify a clear vision of
how digital technologies can create competitive advantage as a function of their role
Source: PwC, January 2015
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New Primary Research – June 2015
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General Findings
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Overarching Conclusions
•  Business transformation is a priority
•  Business transformation is not only a concern of the IT organization
•  “Losing credibility and customers” is a bigger threat of not implementing
business transformation projects – even more than “losing revenue”
•  All business transformation project types are a priority
(or conversely, no project type is a priority)
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Benchmarking the Impact of Company Size

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Company Size & Business Transformation Priorities
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Company Size & Third-Party Resources
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Key Conclusions
•  Smaller companies (less than 1,000 employees) are seeking to minimize
costs while stretching their resources by picking their business
transformation projects
•  Midsized companies (1,000 – 10,000 employees) struggle to prioritize
•  Large companies (more than 10,000 employees) leverage more maturity
in business transformation prerogatives
o  Larger budget
o  More clearly deﬁned business transformation role and directive
o  More trust and reliance on partner resources (vendors)
o  Stronger focus
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Takeaway: Roadmaps & Prioritization
Business’ ability to adapt to market- and
consumer-driven changes is increasingly
constrained by their ability to bring technology
solutions to bear more quickly, and at larger
scale. At the same time, the number of places
within their business where they can apply
technology solutions to eﬀect transformation
are also increasing.
The biggest challenge
right now for decision
makers is to determine
which of all the possible
initiatives to take
on first.
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Benchmarking the Impact of Role

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The Role of the Executive
•  The higher up you are, the more likely
you are to say decisions fall on you
•  CEOs are most inﬂuential in both
smaller and the largest companies
•  CEOs of large companies are road
mapping the connection between
digital investments and business
objectives
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Disconnect Between Executive & Contributor
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Disconnect Between Executive & Contributor
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Key Conclusions
•  The CEO exercises similar roles in small and large companies
(but in totally diﬀerent scale)
•  Executives are enthusiastic about business transformation –
They think they can plan all types of projects (contributors, not so much)
•  Contributors believe they can achieve business transformation
independently (executives, not so much)
•  Contributors feel the need to validate
•  Contributors are closer to stakeholder pain
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The Importance of Addressing the Disconnect
Individual contributors and line managers are
convinced that they’re able to bring business
transformation initiatives into fruition – but at
the same time, executive stakeholders are
convinced they need to go outside their own
companies to drive the change they really need.
It’s incumbent on IT
leaders to invest in their
teams -- not only to
bring them up to speed
on the wave of digital
technologies -- but on a
new way of interacting
and serving their
business stakeholder’s
needs.
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Benchmarking the Impact of Vendors & Partners

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Impact of Partners & Vendors on Priorities
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Impact of Partners & Vendors on Projects
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Key Conclusions
•  Organizations that do not leverage external partners are more often
ﬁghting market-share battles rather than wholly transformative
operational improvements
•  Organizations seeking third-party vendors are more likely to be looking
for support on inward-facing projects
•  Organizations already in a relationship with a resource expect precise
execution and greater contribution to the strategic plan
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Takeaway: Find a Transformation Ally
“Reinvent or die in a ruthless world”
Raconteur Magazine
Business Transformation Issue, April 2015
The most successful IT
organizations will be
those who recognize
the challenges in front
of them and are willing
to seek outside help to
meet the changing
demands of their
stakeholders.
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Recommendations

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(1) Increasing Organizational Maturity
•  Improve focus of business
transformation priorities; strategic
eﬃciencies and client experiences
•  Increase transparency and
communication of executive goals;
leadership need to embrace the project
as much as the “vision”
•  Partner with third-party resources that
bring hindsight and expertise; establish a
trust that can survive the long-term
•  Follow the natural evolution of
business transformation projects; don’t
get stuck in a comfort zone
The inaugural research highlights pragmatic maturity benchmarks
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(2) Focusing on Repairing the Disconnect
•  Executives and budget makers need to open up to the rest of the organization
regarding what's in their "transformation portfolio"
o  Identify / fix when you know you are playing it “too close to the chest”
o  “Manage up” to improve transparency and visibility specifically on how certain projects
have been designed to achieve business transformation goals
•  Mobilize your PMO to establish clear charter, funding, resourcing, and post-project
benefit tracking to ensure business transformation initiatives can both start,
finish, and be graded
•  Identify an outside partner to be your "transformation ally”
o  Your in-house team will not meet the demands that are coming
o  The sooner you build trust; the more capable both your internal and external teams will be
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(3) Prioritizing Projects Strategically
•  Accelerate procurement of new skills -- cloud, mobile, analytics -- these are going to
be in huge demand and be the primary technology enablers of every transformation
initiative over the next 5 years
•  Apply ROI-based analysis of your potential portfolio to identify the right attack order
•  Set real priorities around transformation initiatives (everything can’t be top priority)
•  Organize around "whole" teams
o  There's no business transformation initiative that's 100% IT only
-- Likewise, there's also no initiative that can get done without IT
o  Consider a project leader or champion who's outside of IT for the duration of the project
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Thank You! Questions?

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Introductions: Research Team
Kerry Raminiak, Research & Analysis
•  Manages the development of product and marketing research within the purview of enterprise IT and
application development and delivery (AD&D) best practices
•  Similar roles for the past 12 years, within major enterprise application suite and as owner of communications
ﬁrm that specialized in messaging for software, web-based applications, and other technology niches
•  Kerry has a BS in Communications from Towson University Maryland, and an MA from Pepperdine University
Glenn Burnside, Executive Vice President Operations
•  Ensures the successful, “zero-surprises” execution of all client projects through Headspring’s unique ROI-driven
delivery model (RDDM™)
•  Has been delivering software projects and leading development teams for over 14 years, ranging from high-
speed data acquisition libraries to global e-commerce solutions, as well as enterprise products for both the
medical and ﬁnancial industries
•  A graduate of Texas A&M University
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Introductions: Headspring
Headspring is a business transformation catalyst with
a unique and accelerated planning and delivery model
that aligns software application portfolios to
enterprise business goals – providing the best ROI in
the industry via:
•  A 98.2% project success rate
•  100% onshore technical collaboration
•  Rapid delivery model
•  Value-based, fixed-cost bids
•  3 Texas offices; Austin, Dallas and Houston
Objectives
Data Collection
Analysis
Value Case
Roadmap
Portfolio
Rationalization
Strategy
Development
Optimization
Mobile
Strategy
Development
Re-platform
Cloud
Modernization
Consolidation
Retirement
Greenfield
Application
Development
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The Function of IT in Business Transformation

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