Architecture:

Back to the Drawing Board

Underpinning all this anticipated change will be the systems architecture, and Hayward believes now is an opportune time for CIOs to be questioning the sort of "city plan" that they want in place.

"Architectures are needed so that you don't go down any technological blind alleys or overload the infrastructure," he says. That may lead to some non-traditional choices, and Hayward believes that the desire for less static architectures may prompt more organisations to consider systems such as open source and Linux, which in part reflects the new thinking among CIOs regarding flexibility, but importantly also reflects the maturity of these systems and the IT organisations supporting them.

"There used to be a saying that no one got fired for buying IBM. Well there's now the case of Russell Scrimshaw [ex-CIO of the Commonwealth Bank] and that suggests you may run the risk of being fired if you only buy Microsoft," Hayward says.

Long before decisions on product are taken though, organisations need to map their business model and enterprise architecture in tandem, or risk having a square peg/round hole situation develop.

Gartner says CIOs and CTOs must understand that while they have important roles to play in mapping the enterprise architecture, for that architecture to have any real value they can no longer "own" it.

Gartner acknowledges the difficulties involved with the creation of a new business architecture, and suggests that companies should only begin the process over the next two to four years. Moreover, a board-level sponsor, who can work with the business and IT teams to define, codify, evolve and review the emerging architecture, ought to be appointed. Velocity rather than speed will be the key. vReady, Steady, GoChange or lose ground to the competition"Thereal-time enterprise will become one of the most important mechanisms for leveraging business value from enterprise IT investments from 2003 onwards," Gartner says. "Leading enterprises will adopt time-based transformation as the major focus of their IT-enabled investments." In doing so these organisations will change - as some have already changed - the competitive landscapes in their sectors.

Three business imperatives for real-time enterprises:

• Simplify the view and select critical cycles
• Slash some processes and stabilise others
• Set time reduction goals and sell them into the enterprise.

Three IT imperatives for real-time enterprises:

• Map the enterprise application latencies and measure the cost of change.
• Mobilise staff to work on latency reductions and reskill appropriately.
• Architect for agility - fast and flexible response to business.

What Have You Done for Me Lately

As CIO, your track record is everything.

In this era of IT scepticism the greatest ally for any CIO will be credibility, and that will often be heavily dependent on his or her track record, says Gartner senior vice president Bob Hayward.