Stories by: Andrew Rowsell-Jones

As enterprises focus increasingly on growth, direct customer engagement is more important than ever.

As business priorities change and evolve, so do enterprise expectations of the CIO and IT organization. According to the 2008 Gartner Survey of CIOs, enterprises expect to invest proportionally more in distinctive technology solutions that address unique business needs, and less in commodity technologies. The reason for this shift is simple: Marketplace differentiation requires C-level leaders to be focused, committed and able to drive change across their organization -- with direct, positive impact on the bottom line (or gains for the political agenda of a government agency).

Choose your shared-service model based on value

Executive expectations for IT have evolved from technology services to business contribution. CEOs now want IT to contribute to strategic differentiation and growth. They are increasingly asking their CIOs: Do I have the right IT? And how do I know?

Effective CIO participation in corporate planning is critical for business and IT success. However, engaging in corporate planning can be a bumpy road for CIOs due to conflicting time lines, power politics, unforeseen shocks and shifting priorities in business units and the corporate office.

In IT, we all make lots of decisions: What tools to buy, who to hire, what to invest in. Decisions are often complex and politically sensitive, involving a large number of stakeholders

Customers, employees and partners expect to interact with their suppliers, employers and advisers when, where and how they like. Enterprise CIOs can deliver enhanced business performance and innovation for their firms by combining existing IT assets in conjunction with emerging consumer technologies.

The development of innovative products and services - or for the sake of brevity, let us just call it new product development - is an imperative for enterprises of every stripe in response to rising stakeholder expectations and growing market competition. Unsurprising then that when asked about such things in the latest Gartner survey of CIOs, supporting and driving new product development was one of the predominant IT issues for 2008 and beyond

Executive expectations for IT have evolved from delivering technology services to contributing to strategic differentiation and growth of the business. CEOs are increasingly asking their CIOs: Do I have the right IT? And how do I know? To answer these questions, CIOs must connect their IT capabilities with the unique perspectives of their business models for delivering value.

New product development is an imperative for enterprises of every stripe, and because it is of critical importance, it provides an opportunity for CIOs to show that they are business leaders and for IT departments to show that they are well aligned with enterprise goals.