Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 24 | Page 38

CIO OPINION CIO opinion “ ORGANISATIONAL AGILITY MATTERS NOW AND IS PART OF THE BUSINESS DNA. ////////////////// Chris Bedi, CIO at ServiceNow How CIOs can foster an agile IT organisation Chris Bedi, CIO at ServiceNow, says CIOs can build an agile IT organisation that is more attuned to the needs of the business. For example, he suggests CIOs should have their IT teams listen to quarterly earnings calls with analysts to help them understand the strategic goals of the business. 38 INTELLIGENTCIO A gility is a big deal. As companies embrace Digital Transformation, we have stopped defending the old ways of doing business. Instead, we focus on making sure appropriate change occurs. We reorganise people, processes and technology to empower change and drive tangible results. Organisational agility matters now and is part of the business DNA. behind all this talk of IT agility, CIOs have to lead their teams through some fundamental shifts. Automate everything routine In IT, we are used to thinking of agility in terms of the development team. Today, it means more. CIOs need to build and present an entire agile IT organisation, which requires giving some serious thought to the way the organisation works. We must move to a new IT operating model. IT departments continue to fall into the same trap. Traditionally, 70% to 80% of IT spending goes to maintenance and upkeep of legacy systems – keeping the lights on – and only 20% on innovation to move the business forward. Most of us have operated under cost pressures, more in some industries than others. Operating with half the IT staff, or sometimes less, is the new norm and we shouldn’t expect that to change significantly – everyone across the entire business has to do more with less. This sounds daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. To start putting more action However, the business needs IT to support new initiatives in order to grow. www.intelligentcio.com