There is an urgent need for CIOs to think more like leaders than managers in 2017 and beyond. Organizations need the thought leadership of CIOs to achieve greater agility and to add more value to the business. It is also important to achieve greater results by identifying opportunities without asking for more resources. This needs an integrated approach as explained below.

Thoroughly review maintenance of licenses 

It is observed that the cost of maintaining licenses for accessing upgrades, bug fixes, and patching keeps on mounting year after year. This can assume significant proportion of the overall IT expenditure in terms of fixed costs. In order to ensure the optimum level of expenditure for maintaining licenses, you need to look at the following points.

Identifying the status of licenses- Although, it would be ideal to have the latest upgrades for all available licenses, majority of organizations are found to be running number of upgrades behind the schedule as far as certain applications are concerned. In such a scenario, there is a possibility that by upgrading or re-implementing these applications you would end up paying for features and functions that would not be necessary at all. One cannot expect vendors to make you aware about such things either. You can explore the possibility of re-purchasing such applications at more attractive terms by going off support. 

Reviewing third party support- It is always better to get rid of third party support if the organization’s own talent pool is more efficient in resolving the glitches. On the other hand if you are in search of better third party support, then there are providers of support as a service including Rimini Street. They have a better track record of delivering more satisfactory results than most of the conventional providers of license maintenance services. 

Think cloud- Cloud hosting provides an attractive way to enhance ROI in comparison with on site applications even if you have been able to shift at least fifteen percent of existing on-site IT applications to cloud. It is time to consider exploring the cloud if you have not been able to do it till now. The idea is to go step by step instead of a full-fledged digital transformation process. Shifting of certain operations such as CRM, analytics, or ERP can result in considerable savings in terms of infrastructure, maintenance, and taxes to name a few. Enterprises have been able to save on security solutions by moving applications to cloud. These savings can be channelized to more productive processes. 

Key Initiatives to be implemented by CIOs Through 2017is a continuous process even for those organizations that are already on the right track to establish a robust cloud footprint. Gradual adoption of cloud applications helps organizations to get accustomed to the regulations and governance while understanding more optimized use of cloud applications. 

Review of security expenditure- There is no point in splurging on security expenditure by getting obsessed with security related concerns. Optimization of security expenditure is the proper approach to ensure that your business is protected against possibility of hacks and breaches. By identifying the areas that are responsible or overspending in terms of security, you can certainly optimize the security expenditure. 

Understand significance of quality- Business processes and development initiatives are influenced by need to deliver faster results. There is an unprecedented pressure on IT teams to achieve agility and speed. It is found that in the process of achieving greater agility, quality parameters are often overlooked and are more of afterthoughts. This calls for the need to adapt testing and quality assurance practices to digital business. It is essential for QA to understand customer preferences by getting involved with the latest technology oriented projects right from the conceptualization phase. Test data must be arranged and lined up much before the same is required. This will facilitate developer teams to perform significant part of testing.

Make the most of your coaching skills- Growing pressures of adapting to change due to emergence of new technologies necessitate need to hone and utilize coaching skills. Coaching will enhance resiliency of your teams to face the changing landscapes of technology developments with confidence and poise instead of getting bogged down. Employees and executives must be trained to learn through mistakes. 

CIOs need to be concerned with the hectic pace of change in contemporary digital universe. They need to make sure that their organizations are well equipped to deal with change. By directing coaching you can encourage subordinates to learn new skills so that their dependence on you will gradually reduce. It is extremely important to test the proposed ideas before their actual implementation. 

Takeaway

It is essential for CIOs to know the technology trends of 2017 and accordingly set the priorities in order. It is time to bring change into perceptions about IT, which is no more a mere utility. This also means that CIOs are neither utility managers. 

Interesting Topic:  Modern Trends in Enterprise IT and Progressive Role of CIOs