The Empowered BT CIO

Many pundits are writing the CIO's obituary. Your employees and the business are no longer relying on IT to provision and deliver technology. They are using technologies like social, mobile, cloud, and video to bypass IT. Your customers expect on-demand information, customized user experiences, and mobile apps. Your data center functions are being outsourced to gain cost efficiencies. All this can sound dismal for the CIO and the IT organization. Some CIOs have reacted by vigorously defending their turf from these encroachments; others are more optimistic about the future of their role but concede that they will have less control over their technology environment. Forrester believes that these changes bring a unique opportunity for CIOs to step up and lead their technology organizations into the world of empowered BT (business technology). They can do this by taking a three-pronged strategy of developing people and processes to support a new governance paradigm, embracing disruptive technologies that fuel business innovation, and partnering with the business to drive growth and customer engagement.