For CIO Professionals

REPORT: The Operating Model For Customer Obsession

November 3, 2015 Sharyn Leaver, Michelle Moorehead, Sheryl Pattek

We know and have proven that a better customer experience correlates with higher revenue growth. But what does it take to succeed in your quest for the level of customer obsession needed to drive these results? To find out, we analyzed the practices of over 30 companies at various stages in their customer-obsessed transformations. Through in-depth discussions with C-level executives at each of these firms, we teased out the common core for success. This report details the fundamental reset of day-to-day operations required to drive customer obsession.

For CIO Professionals

REPORT: The False Promise Of Bimodal IT

BT Provides A Customer-Led, Insights-Driven, Fast, And Connected Alternative

April 7, 2016John McCarthy, Sharyn Leaver

CEOs, CIOs, and heads of product development face huge challenges and opportunities that require a re-engineering of technology management and the business' role in its implementation. Bimodal IT creates two separate groups that work at different speeds on segregated systems. It is fundamentally unable to address customer and enterprise needs for agility. CIOs need a single, bolder business technology (BT) strategy to accelerate innovation and simplification, not a two-class system that adds more front-end and back-end silos of complexity.

For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Top Five Imperatives To Win In The Age Of The Customer

May 23, 2017 Sharyn Leaver

Customer-obsessed companies have the highest median three-year growth in sales. But only 13% of firms have achieved this level of customer obsession. Why? Because it's hard. It requires remaking your company, systematically, to reorient each element toward the customer. The good news is that, done right, five key imperatives — many of which are likely already underway in your organization — can set you on the path toward customer obsession. This report outlines the why and how of these top executive-level imperatives.

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: The Future Of Enterprise Applications

Will Emerging Dynamic Business Apps End The Reign Of Packaged Apps?

December 21, 2007 Sharyn Leaver

The $103 billion enterprise applications market has experienced massive consolidation over the past few years and has delivered moderate innovation and revenue growth. Meanwhile, globalization, rapid market change, a changing workforce, and regulations have turned the desire for more agile and usable applications into a business imperative, which means that app vendors must deliver Dynamic Business Applications or risk becoming obsolete. The technology already exists, but legacy architectures, entrenched business models, maintenance and support requirements, and licensing constructs will limit how far these vendors go down the path toward unbridled flexibility. Expect smaller app vendors to lead the charge with targeted offerings that fit into broader software ecosystems. Larger vendors like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and even IBM will focus on cross-functional applications with more flexible process definitions at the heart of their packaging and pricing strategies.

For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Tools For IT Planning

March 23, 2009 Sharyn Leaver

Strategic planning is more difficult than ever. Today's volatile economic environment means that IT must plan quickly, more flexibly, and more thoroughly. Plans that don't follow this path quickly become obsolete — sometimes even before they're completed. For years, planning teams have relied on sources of information of varying quality and sluggish manual processes to create their IT plans. But now, a group of tools from the enterprise architecture (EA) arena is emerging with the goal of making IT planning a quicker, more flexible, and more thoroughly aligned process.