With the rise of the Digital Age and the Internet of Things (IoT), the business environment is going through a series of disruptive changes that seem to alter the most fundamental aspects of the economy. It would seem that almost nothing will remain as it was before. The traditional hierarchical system begins to break down, as seen with most of the start-ups today.

These examples presented here are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the disruption brought forth by today's technological revolution.

The implementation of new technologies has taken center stage, as of late, meaning that the bridge between business and IT is closer than ever. And as a consequence, the lines between CEOs, CTOs, and CIOs are also beginning to blur. So, what are the responsibilities of these three positions?

CEO - As the most senior corporate, executive, or administrative officer, the CEO is tasked with looking at the big picture items regarding company growth.

CTO - The chief technology officer, or sometimes known as the chief technologist, is tasked with all technological and scientific issues regarding the organization.

CIO - The chief information officer, on the other hand, works with traditional information technology (IT) as well as all computer systems that support the enterprise's goals.

CFO - The chief financial officer is responsible for financial affairs within the organization. The modern CFO is using emerging technology for more strategic planning.

Does your business plan for 2019 include how your organization can best leverage technology? With technology becoming so prevalent in companies and their successes and growth, the relationship between the CEO/CTO/CIO/CFO etc is growing stronger.

The Merger of Roles

Looking at these simple definitions and together with what we mentioned previously, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that these three roles within an organization begin to overlap. As technology is becoming a significant factor in an organization's growth and efficiency, it only stands to reason that the CEO will also have to consider it.

Similarly, the CIO and CTO positions are also evolving in response to this digital transformation of the business landscape. This shift is represented by how CIOs view their roles within a company. In 2017, for instance, only 20% of CIOs still saw themselves solely in their traditional roles of managing IT operations. That number was down from 27% the year prior.

By comparison, around 50% of CIOs are more focused on implementing new systems and aligning them with the company's business goals - a figure up from 45% in 2016. Also, 31% lean towards a more strategic focus, spending the majority of their time on various business innovation and growth activities.

At the same time, however, the business side of an enterprise is becoming more tech savvy. With an overall increase in digital literacy and programming skills, it's becoming increasingly apparent that these roles are overlapping in certain areas. It was Brook Colangelo, EVP, and CTO at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who once said in a tweet that “Everybody is a technologist and everybody in technology is in the business.”

In other words, these business leaders need to forsake the traditional way of doing things and take advantage of these skill sets. They need to create an environment in which employees are empowered to innovate, thanks to today's many digital technologies.

 

What's an IT Roadmap? A technology roadmap, also known as an IT roadmap, is a visual document that presents and communicates an organization's plan for technology initiatives. In other words, an IT roadmap will highlight what, when, and why the technology solutions offered will be implemented. Often, roadmaps are designed to fix what's broken, but they can also be used to uncover opportunities and the potential of your business. In a perfect scenario, it's used for both.

Your IT roadmap should serve as a flexible planning technique with the aim of supporting a long-range strategy, though it supports both long and short-term goals. As we approach the end of the year, your business plan is likely well underway, if not yet completed. Do you have a technology roadmap that supports all aspects of your business?

In today's modern workplace, with technology being so ingrained in everyone's daily lives, it's important that the CEO of a company is working closely with its CTO, CIO, and other technology leaders to ensure the right technology is installed in their systems and network to empower their employees. Every company has specific business goals that they want to drive throughout the organization so the leaders of that organization need to be asking themselves 'what kind of technology can support these goals?' as well as 'do my employees have the technologies they need to be productive and successful?'

Overall, the technology roadmap needs to be supporting the overall business roadmap. These need to be strategically aligned to ensure business growth and success. Here, we will go into what every technology roadmap needs and how you can get started.

Not sure where to get started with your roadmap? Request a Network Assessment for one of our tech experts comes on-site to do a full analysis of your network and infrastructure so that you can start planning today.

How to Build an IT Roadmap  

The Strategy - Like everything else, an IT roadmap starts with a well-designed strategy. You will first have to determine what are your priorities and what you hope to generate. Many IT roadmaps are used to reduce waste, but they can also be utilized to help determine what tools can benefit your teams, how to deliver a better customer experience, or even to streamline overall operations, among others.

Needs, Priorities & Timeline - When creating and implementing one such roadmap, it's important to remember that you can't always do it all. A roadmap should not be overwhelming - it should be the opposite. It is necessary for you to get visibility as it relates to the who, how, when, and where of each project. In addition, make sure that you are looking at mitigating risk versus leveraging technology with each project. This can help your prioritize what's needed versus what's wanted.

You also need to review your business processes to highlight inefficiencies, identify all technology gaps, as well as functional capabilities. Then prepare an itemized and prioritized checklist of the necessary steps that need to be taken.

Lastly, realistic timelines are crucial in creating a successful IT roadmap. These schedules and deadlines should be for each project and based on the order of priority as well as the duration of each project plus the available resources. One way of relieving some of the stress and workload is by leveraging external resources, such as consultants. They can also contribute with added value and experience, and help you avoid some of the common pitfalls encountered by others.

Balancing Risks - A roadmap wouldn't be complete without considering the uncertainty of things, especially when it comes to mitigating risk with your technology and infrastructure. Security should always be a priority in today's world. With a stable infrastructure, you'll be able to leverage the technology you need and not hinder productivity amongst employees, but increase it. Consider what is a 'nice-to-have' versus a 'must-have' to help you prioritize and minimize risk. It's all about balance and making sure you're communicating these things across all departments. While security is a huge concern for IT, it affects the entire organization.

Cost Measurement - The investment required for a technology should be well thought out and intentional. It's important to consider not only cost but time and internal resources. It's advisable that you research the prices available on the market and that you create a realistic cost estimate for each project on your roadmap. In addition to the cost, take a look at how many people you will need to dedicate to each item and the time it will require to complete each project. Don't forget to also include other costs such as subscription fees, maintenance, support, or new infrastructure costs. In the end, this technology roadmap should help to facilitate investment in different departments better and improve overall planning.

Always Look Ahead - Many business leaders do not take full advantage of the many disruptive technologies that appear on a continually and which can, otherwise, improve their competitive edge. When developing your own IT roadmap, keep an eye out for what type of technology will help you stay competitive over the next three to five years. Look for technology that's flexible and scalable enough to fit in with your long-term needs.

Conclusion

There are numerous benefits in designing your own IT roadmap. It will help you keep moving forward without losing sight of the end goal. Make sure you're having these technology conversations with not only IT leaders but C-Level executives as well. When done right, technology should support the entire organization and not just the IT department.

If you want to learn more about implementing your plan, contact us for consulting today.

 

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By customizing the perfect mix of software, hardware, and IT services, Fractional CIO services delivers a flexible technology solution that evolves and adapts to meet customer needs and exceed expectations at every stage of their business cycle.

• Tailored Consultation: Prior to offering any recommendations for changes in your IT infrastructure, we become as familiar with your business as possible. By learning specifically what your IT system entails and what you need out of it, we can ensure the best possible recommendation for the next development you undertake.

• Long-term Planning: We help you to develop long term IT plans that consider crucial factors like your budget, projections, customer and employee needs and business goals to guarantee that your IT infrastructure can always support the changes your company undergoes.

• One Convenient Rate: As a Virtual CIO, we don’t demand a full-time salary, or any of the other expenditures that come with an actual executive employee. By fulfilling this position though a service, you save money and benefit from a single, easy to budget monthly rate.

What Results Will Your Business See From Fractional CIO Services?

The convergence of in-depth technical knowledge, astute business processes, and expert engineering and financial services into a solid business model enables agencies to proactively address systematic budgeting and long-term management of their IT infrastructures.

Fractional CIO Services brings separately managed IT Processes and components into a single holistic program to deliver end to end services that emphasize benefits to users / customers.

• Better business and IT alignment

• Enhanced agility

• Reduced IT costs

• Better profitability

• Reduced regulatory and security risks

• Improved satisfaction with IT

Fractional CIO Services focuses on cost, contract and organizational management of hardware and software across the entire life cycle.

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Contact Managed Solution To Evaluate Your Business Needs 858-429-3084

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A technology roadmap can help the CIO act more in line with the strategy of the organization. It benefits both technology leaders and functional leaders and encourages collaboration that results in true executive alignment on existing and new investments.

What is a technology roadmap?

A roadmap is the governing document that dictates specifically how technology will support the business strategy and help drive businesses priorities over the next 3-5 years. From what I have seen, the best roadmaps contain the following:

1. A strategy statement with the list of the strategic priorities for the business (not IT-specific).

2. A timeline of the initiatives and projects that will occur over the next several years with approximate start and end dates, durations, and sizes.

3. A prioritized list of improvement opportunities. This is generated jointly by the business and IT and should be refreshed periodically.

4. High-level justifications for each project. These should be robust for projects over the next 12 months and simpler statements for projects past the 12 month horizon.

5. The estimated cost and duration for each project. This is specific and reasonably accurate for projects occurring over the next 12 months and can be vaguer for projects that go out farther than that.

6. An owner for each project. This is the sponsoring executive or delegate directly overseeing the project. For projects in the next 12 months it should be the specific person and for projects beyond that it can be the owning executive.

To support the roadmap (but keep separately), I recommend technology departments keep up-to-date versions of:

• Systems architecture diagrams of the whole enterprise including interfaces, manual data movements, and platforms (this is not an infrastructure diagram – this is just systems specific).

• A systems inventory that is periodically updated and contains at least end-of-life dates, basic statement on usage, number of users, and system owner.

• A running list of emerging problems the IT support staff is seeing. Good help desk software should be able to track this for you

How will you use it?

The roadmap has three primary functions:

1. The IT leader will use it to facilitate investment discussions with the rest of leadership. The IT leader will use the roadmap as a baseline when discussing new projects or priorities with functional executives. It will help leadership understand how to balance investment and project priorities and provide a way to visualize tradeoffs.

2. The IT department will use it to improve planning for projects and resources. The roadmap will help them anticipate resourcing needs, plan assignments, software and vendor selection, and costs ahead of time, and make it possible to start visioning and planning with the functional owners well in advance.

3. Functional leaders will use it to understand what is required of and will be delivered to their departments. It helps them clearly understand how they should balance existing roadmap initiatives with new requests. The roadmap will keep functional leaders aligned on strategic technology priorities across the enterprise. Active management of the roadmap will result in much better executive alignment and stakeholder buy-in before projects even begin.

Who benefits from it?

Technology Leadership

The roadmap is designed to structure the communication between the technology department and the functional executives in a manner that allows the IT department to:

• Act strategically when making investment decisions and managing projects.

• Make securing buy-in from business leadership a more structured processes which, in turn, makes it easier to earn buy-in from business users.

• Negotiate more effectively with leaders or staff who request new projects or initiatives that require significant, non-operating effort.

Functional Leadership

The roadmap allows functional executives to be strategic when they request new or improved technology. They can use their functional strategies to begin working with IT leadership to determine which types of technology projects will be required to achieve their goals.

The roadmap provides transparent resourcing needs for when business staff will need to be assigned to IT projects, clear traceability to costs, and the detail for why those resources and dollars are required.

Most importantly, it provides a strategic, structured manner of governing changes to business needs as they arise. It makes sure there is a technology voice at the table when decisions are made that require IT support, and it encourages balancing priorities across the business, diffusing conflict before it arises.

Staff and Project Teams

The roadmap clearly spells out why the projects they are working on are important and, as things on the roadmap move or are re-prioritized, it forces the leaders to explain why and how those priorities are shifting. The roadmap encourages a clear and regular line of communication between leadership and staff.

The Bottom Line

The business needs to fully participate in the development process. In fact, if the CIO reports to anyone other than the CEO, I recommend the sponsoring executive sit outside of IT. Because of the strategic nature of the document and how critical leadership buy-in will be, it will need support at the highest levels of the enterprise.

If you are a technology leader: you need to push the executives to support the development of an IT roadmap to help you invest strategically and have structured conversations around investment with the other executives.

If you are not a technology executive: you should be pushing your organization to develop a roadmap so you can act more strategically in your area and benefit the business holistically with new investments.

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Contact Managed Solution to schedule a Network & System Assessment to build the most strategic architecture around your systems and networks. 858-429-3084

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Risk Analysis for EOL Hardware & Security

One of the biggest benefits of modernizing business with the latest technology is that it is always changing - and updating. However, this means that companies constantly need to analyze their software, hardware, and security to see when certain products need to be updated, and how they should go about doing so. Many of the technologies businesses are using today go to end-of-life after six and twelve months, meaning risk analysis is vital to keep business disasters at bay.

The risks

• Security

  • Failing to update products coming up to end-of-life can comprise a company's security, making them more vulnerable to hacking

• Efficiency

  • Having outdated IT will slow down your day-to-day business

• Revenue

  • If companies are using products facing EOL, they can deal with revenue loss from lack of the proper productivity tools, cybersecurity threats, and more

End of life is a key moment to transition to a cloud-first, mobile-first environment. Managed Solution can help you with this transition. Key dates for Office products approaching end of life support:

• April 11, 2017: Exchange Server 2007

• October 10, 2017: Office 2007, Project Server 2007, SharePoint Server 2007

• October 31, 2017: Outlook 2007 connectivity to Office 365

• January 9, 2018: Communication Server 2007

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After 15 years in the outsourced IT industry, Managed Solution has learned the best, fastest, and smartest way to help our customers justify infrastructure investment and scale with the right technology roadmap based on their unique needs. From professional services to cloud infrastructure to managed services and more, let us partner with you on an IT strategy that delivers results fast.

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M&A Technology Integration

Merger and Acquisition Technology Integration is becoming an integral part of accomplishing modern business goals. However, M&A Technology Integration is a notably risky business move, with a lot of failures often resulting from lack of successful execution strategies. In order to successfully integrate, companies must set up clear deliverables for the merge and acquisition process that includes strategic processes for IT professionals to managers to stakeholders. Follow these key tips for creating successful merger and acquisition technology integration that will provide exponential business growth.

Know your own infrastructure

Details about your own infrastructure will help not only the merging company, but also your own as you learn what you currently have, what you need, and how you can get it. Create an intricate map of your company's IT infrastructure that you can communicate to the merger company and other company executives to see if the M&A will be a feasible option. A good CIO should have a full understanding of what the company's IT architecture is, as well as what their strongest and most important systems are. This will help identify what the merger and acquisition technology should be, and how the company can use parts of their technology to achieve it.

Do Due Diligence

A significant factor in the success of M&A integration is performing due diligence. Companies and CIO's must clearly identify obstacles and liabilities. In order to prevent problems throughout the merging process, preventative measures can be taken to avoid certain liabilities and obstacles. Before the project even begins, CIO's should be able to fully assess the potential resources needed for the project, what they company can provide internally, and what might need to be outsourced for the successful M&A.

The Benefits

By successfully completing a strategic M&A technology integration, businesses are rewarded with a simplified, efficient, and effective business growth strategy. Using their advanced, premiere resources in the merger and acquisition, the company also benefits from the other resources, essentially getting the best of both worlds. Collaboration, efficiency, scalability, and security are all benefits of using M&A technology integration. By following precise steps and standards throughout the execution process, companies can find a successful integration that lasts beyond the first foundational steps of the M&A technology integration process.

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How A Blended IT Solution Cuts Waste

Modern businesses need top-of-the-line productivity tools mixed with the best IT professionals around mixed with low-cost tech solutions.  It sounds impossible, but it doesn't have to be. With a Blended IT solution, businesses can blend their IT workforce with our expert staff and tech solutions.

 

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Want to learn more about what Blended IT really means? Fill out the form to download the WhitePaper

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