The Top Ten Business Priorities For CIOs In 2012

Top Ten Business Priorities

Around this time of year there are lots of predictions or top ten lists for the coming year. One of these comes from Silicon.com in which they list the following business priorities for CIOs in the coming year:

Increasing enterprise growth
Attracting and retraining new customers
Reducing enterprise costs
Creating new products and services
Delivering operational results
Improving efficiency
Improving profitability
Attracting and retaining the workforce
Improving marketing and sales effectiveness
Expanding into new markets and geographies
In our opinion all of these are business as usual for any IT Director or CIO, and these items are exactly the sort of the Business and IT strategy alignment that Fifth Step works with their clients to achieve. Aligning IT and Business strategy is however only part of the process to ensure continued and repeatable results.

Another list within the same article is the top ten technologies for CIOs in 2012, this suggests the solution that CIOs believe they can use to align the IT and Business strategy and meet their business objectives.

Analytics and business intelligence
Mobile technologies
Cloud computing
Collaboration technologies (workflow)
Legacy modernisation
IT management
CRM
ERP
Security
Virtualization
All of these are interesting in their own way, and certainly will contribute to meeting the business priorities listed above if deployed in the appropriate way, and this really is the key. Deploying the right solution is only a business benefit if it is timely and meets the business requirements, this requires the combination of the correct solution, good IT management and good project management to bring it all together.

Is your Business and IT Strategy Aligned?

If your business and IT priorities aren’t aligned, then your business isn’t as efficient or as effective as it can be, and (particularly) in the current economic climate businesses need to make sure that their IT is delivering all that the business needs, in time for the business to leverage the advantages that this brings.

Your Next Steps

If you’re not confident that your IT and Business Strategies are aligned, you need to take prompt action. At Fifth Step we have a lot of experience in this field, and we’re here to help in a way that is appropriate for your business. Feel free to ask a question of Fifth Step’s Virtual IT director team who will get you back on the right path.