Why your Enterprise needs to become Service Defined in response to Digital Disruption

With technology stacks like SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) now disrupting the IT landscape, it should be the goal of all enterprises to become service defined if they want to remain competitive. Becoming its own internal service provider helps transform an organisation into a Service Defined Enterprise (SDE), which puts customers and users at the forefront.

In its whitepaper entitled, ‘Why Every CEO Wants to Lead a Service Defined Enterprise (SDE) and why the CIO Needs to Make it Happen’, Logicalis predicts a future for CIOs and IT departments, but on certain assumptions that they will evolve from what they are today.

The Logicalis SDE whitepaper discusses the future of the IT department and CIO of today. It asks: “Can a CIO and their IT department compete realistically in an open market against an array of ‘new model’ service providers offering cloud as the ‘only viable option’ for survival? Will they ever be able to keep pace with the demand for business innovation when they are so heavily burdened with the obligation to fund and maintain up to a ten year legacy of technology decisions and investments?”

Industry analysts maintain that approximately 80% of the average IT department’s budget is now spent servicing technology buying decisions that were made five to 10 years ago, so CIOs must change significantly and roll with SMAC if they are to survive.

In a new ‘cloud’ world where every facet of technology is available on-demand, as a service, and from specialist providers who are perceived as being faster, cheaper and more innovative, the Logicalis paper says most CIOs will struggle to remain relevant. However, there’s a huge difference between facing a struggle and facing distinction.

The Logicalis whitepaper predicts that, “in the coming years, a new kind of IT department will need to evolve; one that becomes the critical conduit between the business and a select portfolio of specialist technology and service providers. It will be the CIO’s role to perfectly align the needs and ambitions of the business with the technology and services that are required to fulfill them.”

Logicalis believes that the IT department will need to adapt in order to assume the identity of a pseudo service provider. It says: “The aim is not simply to become comparable to external service rivals, but to become the arbitrator of what service standards and capabilities are most needed and which provider is best positioned to deliver them. In an SDE, IT will continue to own and operate enterprise architectures, business processes and productivity applications, but IT’s primary focus will shift from technology management to the delivery of business relevant IT related services.”

The whitepaper argues that: “The position of the CIO will become comparable, in the minds of their business customers, to the expanding number of managed and cloud service providers who offer everything the IT department does today. However, the CIO will gain the freedom and flexibility to create an impressive portfolio of user services and experiences, an agile and responsive operation, and more affordable and sustainable consumption models. In some organisations, this transformation has already begun.”

To read more about how your organisation can become a Service Defined Enterprise, click here to download our ebook.

Tags digital strategy, Digital Transformation, Cloud, analytics, service defined enterprise, mobility, SDE, SMAC, Social media

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