CEO’s are
expecting a lot out of technology in 2013, and Babbage
Simmel is here to exceed their expectations.
In the business context, sustainability is about taking a holistic approach to the long-term viability of an enterprise in the midst of social, environmental and economic forces. At a practical level, it involves the ability to increase revenue, improve profit margins and protect the business' future competitive advantage.
Technology will play a vital role in helping companies achieve this goal -- thanks in part to the evolving role of the IT organization, which has shifted dramatically in recent years. Where IT once focused solely on technology and "the business" focused on profitability, today business and IT functions have converged. In a sense, IT has "become the business" since virtually all business processes reside there now. And while CEOs are not concerned with the bits and bytes of technology (nor should they be), they are better informed about technology than ever before and have high expectations for how it can help improve the bottom line in 2013.
Let’s take a
look at what CEO’s will focus on specifically in 2013 and what we offer to
prepare IT professionals for these conditions.
Growing revenue
To achieve long-term revenue growth, however, enterprises
must develop new products and services that enable them to extend their reach
into adjacent and emerging markets. The mobile market is one such example,
where growth is relentless and tremendous untapped potential still exists for
businesses of all kinds.
With continuing technological innovation and the capacity
to store unfathomable amounts of data (especially in the cloud), many
enterprises are sitting on a gold mine of customer and market intelligence.
Surprisingly, however, many have not even begun to realize the latent value of
these IT artifacts, nor have they discovered how to use this data to their
advantage. Here again is where technology -- specifically, sophisticated analytic
tools -- can have a decided business impact in 2013. Companies that are able to
aggregate that data and mine it for legitimate business purposes will establish
a substantial lead over their competitors. This is where the most potential for
business value can be realized in the coming year.
Security
Security is still a concern as well, but significant advances in this area are being made as vendors rush to fill security needs as quickly as they arise.
Security+ Certification
Implementing Cisco IOS Network Security 2.0 (IINS)
To go back to the original premise then, sustainability is as much about protecting the business as it is about growing revenue and profit margins. While "protection" is often equated with security -- mitigating obvious threats to systems, resources and IP -- in a broader sense, it's about ensuring that the company can maintain the integrity of its brand and ensure its competitive advantage. This is essentially what is meant by sustainability -- and it will be the focus of CEOs in 2013. This is wonderful news for our industry as we move forward into the new year.
You can view the entire article over at It News.
-Matt
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