We’ve collectively been reducing IT costs in organisations for years, and it is the obvious default state for most organisations, regardless of the current prevailing economic climate.
The easiest thing to do when looking to reduce costs is to spend less, trying to maintain current service levels. In my experience, this rarely works. At best, you maintain your current service levels, but slowly, the organisation begins to asphyxiate as it is unable to keep up with changes in conditions, demand and technology.
The challenge of course is that, as Bill Gates once wrote, “… if you’re too focused on your current business, it’s hard to look ahead and even harder to make the changes you need to …”
The real opportunity of course, is to think about the potential of tomorrow whilst being realistic about the savings of today.
Increasingly, (and because we’ve seen the “Cost Saving” movie more times than the Wizard of Oz) significant savings are becoming incredibly hard to identify and achieve and this, coupled with the increasing pressure for us to do more to change the way in which we do business is leading us to the _only_ way forward – Transformation.
Transformation is the cornerstone of the current CIO’s dilemma, get it right and you can have your cake _and_ eat it. Get it wrong and your organisation will begin to lose effectiveness and in your case, relevance as you struggle to keep up.
The good news however, is that the gateway to Transformation are controlled by attributes that are really strong cultural values in your organisation that you have great pedigree in exhibiting. I’ll cover these in more detail later, but ultimately it’s about your ability (both as an individual and an organisation) to be innovative and agile.
Tags: Cost Reduction