2007: A Brave New World
What will be the IT Priorities for 2007?

by Jeffrey D. Abish, Executive Vice President

As we enter 2007 with the benefits of lessons learned from 2006 and changing priorities, what are the issues that will be on the radar screen of CIOs?  Based on numerous surveys of IT executives, 2007's trends can be classified into four closely related categories: Strategy, Management, Security, and Technology.  Here are some of the specific goals in each of these areas that will remain in focus for 2007.

Strategy
Business Process Improvement has been identified as the number one component for all levels of management and executives including CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs.  The leading goals identified are:

• Improving Productivity
• Reducing Cost
• Increasing Revenue
• Complying with Regulations
• Increasing Agility or Business Responsiveness
  

How can organizations accomplish these goals?  The answer is through defined, repeatable processes that include a strong organizational change management mechanism.  In order to know where you are going, you need to first understand where you currently are.  It is critical to establish meaningful metrics that are easy to measure in order to understand how well an organization is performing against these goals.  The first step is to establish Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with baselines providing a basis for measuring progress at regular intervals.  How can IT help in these areas?  Automation itself is not a holy grail if the underlying business processes are not sound.  Including IT support in Business Process Improvement provides a greater understanding of the needs of the business and allows for the development of better solutions for all levels of customers to be supported.

Our customers are why we are all in business.  In order to survive, and more importantly thrive, customer service must remain in the forefront.  In some cases, an overload of information on websites and voice routing systems with endless and confusing menu options has taken customer service backwards.  The proliferation of mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations have often resulted in increased costs and poorer response times.  The solution?  Simplicity is key.  Through intelligent use of portals and content management systems, the delivery of targeted and timely information can be improved, but remember, there is no substitute for the human touch and regular interaction with customers.

ActioNet is committed to process improvement and has established an excellent track record of providing cost effective and targeted solutions for our customers.  Our attainment of ISO 9001:2000 certification in 2006 as well as updating our SEISM CMMI® Level 3 certification to Version 1.2 of the CMMI® Model in 2007 will help us stay ahead of the curve.

Management
A close working relationship between IT and business make business savvy IT professionals extremely valuable.  Project management and business process analysis skills have become key factors in moving up corporate ladders.  Organizations committed to process improvement establish formal Quality Assurance roles within their management teams.  Functional and flexible training mechanisms will be another distinguishing factor for 2007.  Regardless of peaks and valleys in the economy, cost effective training keeps IT and business staff current in their areas of expertise. 
The measurement of IT investments remains a challenge for many organizations.  Since the very nature of IT is predicated on change, how can we measure the Return on Investment (ROI) for this force of nature?  The most common methods for measuring ROI are as follows:

• Time it takes to pay back investments
• Calculation of savings plus additional revenues less cost
• Company specific metrics based on business goals and customer service

ActioNet has excelled in these areas with investments in both processes and people.  Through our Process Improvement, Project Management, and Internal Training programs, we have successfully promoted from within and developed broad skill sets within our employee base.

Security
Security is now considered a cost of doing business and will develop into a mainstream risk management function for organizations in 2007.  Minimizing legal and strategic risks from an organizational perspective becomes a higher priority than purely focusing on hardware and software solutions such as firewalls:

• IT Security threats will continue to increase; especially spyware and viruses as well as stolen equipment and information. 
• Vulnerabilities in commonly used operating systems such as Windows, email systems, and the proliferation of small portable storage devices such as thumb drives and personal digital assistants will force changes in IT support functions and deployment strategies.
  

The answer to this challenge is the development of sound processes and procedures to minimizing these risks.  As a process-oriented company, ActioNet has worked with customers to help them define sound procedures while still maximizing their IT investments.

Technology
In 2007, the demand for integrated and service-based architectures will have an impact on traditional infrastructure design.  Some of the key strategies for 2007 will include:

• Increased investment in data and application integration tools.
• Virtualization of servers and storage reducing cost and complexity.
• Adoption of Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs), replacing older ERP and CRM-based systems.
• Increased focus on data quality.

In Summary
The major lesson learned from 2006 is that the push for automation often resulted in increased complexity, increased cost, and less effective customer service. 
Simplicity in delivering timely and accurate information will be the major focus of 2007.  The success of organizations will, dependent upon the level of integration of the IT organization within the business execution mechanisms established, focus on process improvement and leveraging underlying data assets (existing IT investments).