For CIOs

Role Descriptions For The Office Of The CIO

Key Roles Support The CIO In Driving IT's Success

by Marc Cecere, October 22, 2009

Forrester has assembled job descriptions for several roles within the Office of the CIO — the group of IT leaders who report to the CIO and provide services outside of applications and infrastructure. Based on analyst expertise and a sampling of actual . . .

For CIOs

Reducing The Costs Of IT — Views From Consultancies

by Marc Cecere, October 22, 2009

How do you reduce the costs of IT? To answer this question, Forrester interviewed 21 consultancies that provide cost-reduction services. What did we find? Nearly all consultancies suggested upgrading governance and establishing foundational pieces before . . .

For CIOs

Global Initiatives Require Enterprise IT Executive Committees

by Marc Cecere, September 22, 2009

Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, committees are like democracy — the "worst form of government except for all those others." However, an enterprise IT executive committee is critical to making IT decisions that span the entire company. Consisting of the . . .

For CIOs

Five Steps To Transform An IT Organization

Tips And Techniques From Top Consulting Firms And IT Shops

by Marc Cecere, August 21, 2009

Transforming an IT organization typically requires dramatic changes to processes, structure, governance, and culture. To determine how best to do this, Forrester reviewed the results of several transformation projects and the methodologies of a number . . .

For CIOs

Redesigning Your Applications Organization

by Marc Cecere, July 8, 2009

Redesigning the applications organization is the next major target for IT restructuring and is particularly attractive when cost reduction is needed. Infrastructure organizations have already gone through several stages of consolidation and standardization. . . .

For CIOs

Gross Consulting Mistakes In Transforming IT Shops

Know Your Consultants' Limits

by Marc Cecere, June 4, 2009

Transforming an IT organization involves changes to structure, processes, and even culture. Many firms use consultants for these high-risk, highly complex projects. Occasionally, consultants take actions that hurt the projects and their relationships . . .

For CIOs

Case Study: Financial Services Firm Uses Vendor Management To Reduce Costs

by Marc Cecere, March 23, 2009

Reducing vendor costs requires a strong vendor management function. The problem in many firms is that vendor management is fragmented, resulting in little consistency in the selection and management of vendors. One global financial services company changed . . .

For CIOs

Driving Business Change, Part 3 — Foundational IT Capabilities

Execution, Capacity, Metrics, Flexibility, And Enterprise Apps

by Marc Cecere, March 20, 2009

To be credible within the organization, IT must execute projects and provide basic services with competence and predictability. Without this, the business will not trust IT to be a partner in business change. This report — the third in a series of four . . .

For CIOs

Redesign IT Roles To Drive IT Cost Reduction

by Marc Cecere, March 5, 2009

Today's economy requires most IT organizations to reduce their costs. Ironically, the roles most essential to this process are also viewed as overhead. Several strategic roles, including architecture, vendor management, and relationship management provide . . .

For CIOs

The Forrester Wave™: IT Organization Redesign Consultancies, Q1 2009

Deloitte, Accenture, And KPMG Lead A Strong Field Of Global Providers

by Marc Cecere, January 8, 2009

Forrester evaluated seven leading IT organization redesign consultancies against 40 evaluation criteria and found that all seven show an extremely high level of competence. Compared to most firms that do this, they are superior in their overall designs, . . .

For CIOs

Driving Business Change: The Business Environment Factors

by Marc Cecere, December 3, 2008

A key element in the IT organization's ability to effect business change is the state of the business, which includes factors such as financial status, level of interest in IT, trust in the CIO, and business execs' knowledge of the possibilities and limitations . . .

For CIOs

Changing IT's Culture — What's Cheap And Easy?

by Marc Cecere, December 3, 2008

Forrester asked 72 IT professionals about the importance, enablers, and costs of culture change. Our analysis broke down culture change into eight enablers that included rewards, policies, and peer actions. Some of our findings: Leaders' actions and statements . . .

For CIOs

How CIOs Can Drive Business Change — Part 1

Credibility, Communications, Team, And Competitive Information

by Marc Cecere, September 3, 2008

CIOs are in a unique position to drive business change. Their responsibilities span the enterprise, and the systems they manage are critical to nearly all business processes. They can use this base of influence to initiate business change or merely to . . .

For CIOs

What Are The Hot Roles In IT?

by Marc Cecere, August 14, 2008

Near-term demand for hot roles in IT will be driven by the need for local and cross-discipline knowledge, changes in technology, greater emphasis on managing risk and the enterprise, and a limited supply of key roles. For example, business architects . . .

For CIOs

Does Your IT Culture Need An Overhaul?

Helping CIOs Understand And Implement Change

by Marc Cecere, July 30, 2008

Top executives believe that culture affects job satisfaction, decision-making style, and communication inside IT. However, culture is typically not something organizations deliberately create — instead, it results as a byproduct of other activities such . . .

For CIOs

Defining The IT Relationship Management Function  (366 KB PPT)

by Marc Cecere, July 11, 2008

Relationship managers amplify the power of the CIO and prevent surprises.

For CIOs

Limits To Growth For IT Organizations

by Marc Cecere, July 9, 2008

As IT organizations grow, they run into the limitations of people, processes, and technology. Small IT shops face limits in management experience, dedicated roles, and the ability to control the pipeline of work. Midsized shops hit limits in CIO capacity, . . .

For CIOs

Transitioning To A New IT Model  (306 KB PPT)

by Marc Cecere, July 2, 2008

The transition to a new organizational model is as important as the design of the model.

For CIOs

Survey Results: Size Changes How IT Operates

by Marc Cecere, April 15, 2008

IT shops within small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) are less standardized, more constrained in capacity, more oriented toward the utility archetype, and infrequently view technology as a differentiator. Their people are less specialized, do multiple . . .

For CIOs

The State Of IT Governance In North American And European Enterprises

by Marc Cecere, Alexander Peters, Ph.D., February 28, 2008

More so in 2007 than in recent years, IT departments and their business partners in North America and Europe are generally in sync on strategic priorities. From our survey of more than 500 IT executives on both sides of the Atlantic, we found that the . . .

For CIOs

Gross Mistakes In The Designs Of IT Organizations

by Marc Cecere, February 21, 2008

CIOs frequently change the structure of the IT organization to reduce costs, improve services, or increase responsiveness. Getting the organization design right is essential; the wrong design can degrade business relationships, reduce effectiveness, and . . .

For CIOs

Demand/Supply Organization Models Have Pros And Cons

by Marc Cecere, January 17, 2008

Trade publications and consulting firms have been singing the praises of a new type of IT organization model — the demand/supply (D/S) model. D/S organizations separate IT resources that manage demand from those that supply IT services. They have the . . .

For CIOs

Shaping The IT Organization For Today And Tomorrow

by Marc Cecere, Alex Cullen, January 10, 2008

Business expectations of IT continually change, driven by business context and needs and the embedding of technology in their strategy and operations. CIOs realize that with these changing business expectations, the IT organization can't stand still. . . .

For CIOs

Assessing Your IT Organization

by Marc Cecere, October 23, 2007

The structure, processes, and culture of an IT organization can be barriers to success; therefore, CIOs should periodically assess their IT shops and make improvements. This report uses the lessons learned from more than 200 Forrester engagements to describe . . .

For CIOs

Upgrading Corporate IT For Enterprise Coordination

by Marc Cecere, September 11, 2007

Federated IT shops need to increase cross-business-unit coordination to address enterprise projects. Twenty-three of the 25 organizations we recently reviewed stated they were increasing their investment in processes and systems that cross the enterprise. . . .