Hurwitz: Emerging technologies
Money will be hard to come by in 2002, but to save money in the future, IT still needs to invest in emerging technologies.
Evan Quinn
Chief Analyst
Hurwitz Group
Probably the most common, overarching challenge concerns adding more value to the business during 2002 with roughly the same budget as 2001, and in some cases less budget. Thus, the most important development for IT during 2002 involves human process and management, not technology.
The trick is to somehow balance the tactical demands placed on IT with strategic and even political objectives. This implies that the CIO and IT department need to do a brilliant job of prioritisation. Allocating resources so that IT aligns optimally with business goals is the primary objective. "Must haves" must take complete precedence over "nice to haves," but IT should confirm that the "must haves" reached that lofty designation through business justification. In past years some IT departments have been dragged through business justification of IT investments by the finance and line-of-business arms; in 2002 IT should champion the idea of business justification.
At the same time, IT should stand its ground on long-term architectural standards, and continue investing, albeit carefully, in emerging technologies. Commitment to standards and adopting emerging technologies at the right pace together set the foundation for more effective IT performance long-term.
In terms of emerging technologies, certainly Web services, grid computing, and advances in storage software, security techniques, and management software automation all promise to save money, create opportunity, and add effectiveness to IT's value proposition in the years to come. 2002 is the year to at least gain some familiarity with these technologies, and even implement them on a selected basis.
