How to guide decision makers on the DX journey

CompTIA has released advice on how to approach working with business leaders as someone responsible for guiding an enterprise organisation in this modern digital environment.

In a digital economy, technology is a critical part of business operations and future success - to remain competitive, companies know they must invest in IT.

However, that knowledge is not enough; they also must know where those investments should be made.

Enterprise technology has gone through a major shift and understanding that shift is a prerequisite for a winning game plan.

One of the primary duties of an IT leader or trusted partner in a modern environment is to clearly describe technology trends in terms that the business will understand.

Business unit executives and employees are more aware than ever of the capabilities of technology.

Their knowledge, gained through their own use of technology as consumers, is driving technology procurement within business departments, but it often falls short from an enterprise perspective, where the stakes are higher and the architecture is more complex.

Many new trends have captured the attention of the business world and appear to be significant factors in shaping enterprise technology including cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the internet of things.

These trends, though, are still based on a set of fundamental developments, so understanding these developments will enable an agile approach to current or future trends.

"As IT embraces the dual roles of tactics and strategy, the strategic side drives major change in how IT is executed and evaluated," says CompTIA technology analysis senior director Seth Robinson.

"A new organisational approach to IT must incorporate a new mindset around operations.

There are three areas in particular that highlight critical differences between the standard way of doing things and a modern attitude.

Top line versus bottom line

A traditional view of IT as a support function led to a perception of IT as a cost centre.

Today, IT professionals and managers need to consider different criteria beyond technical specifications when making investments.

Along with mapping technology investments to business goals, the IT function also needs to think about additional investments that will help the company accelerate technology adoption.

Especially in cases where a company may have lagged in their use of technology, evaluating emerging trends and proactively looking for possible use cases are critical parts of remaining competitive.

Consumption versus installation

Historically, there has been a heavy focus on upfront capital investments followed by regular maintenance of the systems that had been installed.

Now, the focus has shifted to monitoring consumption and turning IT expenditure into an operational expense.

In addition to learning new monitoring tools and techniques, especially in a multi-cloud environment, IT pros must get even closer to users to understand their behaviours and preferences so that applications can be optimised for workflow.

Necessity versus luxury

Most companies have viewed some level of technology as a business necessity.

Whether for communications, productivity, or automation, firms have brought in technology that they deem necessary for their operations.

However, tools that once might have been considered outside the realm of business need (and therefore a luxury) are now becoming indispensable.

For example, in the past, companies may have distributed laptops to knowledge workers but not workers in the field or on the manufacturing floor.

Today, nearly every employee in an organisation can use a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

These devices connect not just to standard information technology systems, but also new operational technology that brings digital capabilities to physical environments.

"Moving towards strategic IT is clearly no simple undertaking, and it is not a task that falls solely to the IT department," Altit says

"The biggest misconception around modern enterprise technology is that it is simply more of the same, that IT as we know it is merely becoming faster and more efficient. Instead, the central nature of IT has changed as has the surrounding business.

"Those companies that successfully mobilise and adopt the changes that have taken place will be the ones to lead in the transformed economy.