Watching the swings in technology predictions over the past few years, Technology Leaders continue to pursue short-term and reactionary technology implementations rather than pursuing strategic planning that focuses on the technologies and applications that will position a business for growth, performance, and enhanced value.
| Top 10 of 2009 | Top 10 of 2010 | Top 10 of 2011 |
| 1. Software as a Service (SaaS) | 1. Green Computing and Energy Efficiency | 1. Security |
| 2. Virtualization | 2. Public and Private Cloud Computing | 2. Business Intelligence |
| 3. Enterprise Mobility | 3. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) | 3. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) |
| 4. Energy-Efficient Data Centers | 4. Mobility, Telecommuting and Virtual Meetings | 4. Virtualization |
| 5. Security, Risk and Compliance | 5. Centralization, Standards and Governance | 5. Mobile IT |
| 6. Social Networking | 6. Knowledge Sharing, Business Intelligence and Social Networking | 6. Software as a Service (SaaS) |
| 7. Web 2.0 | 7. Security, E-Discovery and Business Continuity | 7. ERP, CRM and BPI |
| 8. Document Management and E-Discovery | 8. Advances in Application Infrastructure | 8. Hardware Refresh |
| 9. Project Management and Project Portfolio Management | 9. Investments in Hardware Infrastructure | 9. Monitoring and Management of Social Information |
| 10. Web and Video Collaboration | 10. Collaboration, Workflow and Productivity | 10. Unified Communications |
Source: Baseline Magazine, Annual IT Survey (http://www.baselinemag.com)
Baseline Magazine’s Annual IT Survey doesn’t report the percentage of new vs. repeat respondents, however these swings in technology trends are well documented throughout many sources.
The financial crisis of the past two years challenged Technology Leaders to deliver well architected, properly financed and sustainable solutions; unfortunately, the swings in technology trends suggest that the leaders were focused on technology adoption rather than positioning their business for growth, performance, and enhanced value. For instance, the swing in Security (#5 in 2009, #7 in 2010, #1 in 2011) suggests that Technology Leaders choose to curtail security planning and architecture while pursuing new technologies, and now must spend more, and work harder to implement security behind the implementation of technology.
The failure of the Technology Leadership to keep the organization focused on achieving well architected, properly financed and sustainable solutions during this financial crisis is similar to the dot com bust that followed un-checked spending on technology ahead of business growth, performance and enhanced value.
Financial challenges are a part of our economic cycle, when Technology Leaders are not adopting strategically aligned corrective courses of action; they tend to follow technology trends, such as:
- Adopting cloud computing to reduce costs rather than to improve the business’ ability to grow (#2 in 2010, not on the list for 2011)
- Decentralizing or centralizing, without changing the players (#5 in 2010, not on the list for 2011)
The Technology Leadership role continues to be dominated by leaders who fail to recognize, understand and respond to business and economic trends. Ten years ago, the Chief Information Officer was thought to be a part of the C-Leadership suite, but most have failed to achieve this goal, as they never moved beyond the stereotypical management style that has plagued Technology for more than 20 years.
Today’s Technology Leaders must – understand Business and Enterprise Strategy, partner with Marketing, Finance and Operations, and focus on Risk Management and Operational Excellence (5 Principles).
