451 Research: Business transformation, enabled by IT

The Take

Data-driven decision-making is a business imperative of the digital economy. Old ways of doing business are being swept aside in favor of new models that provide enterprises with the insights needed to rapidly capitalize on new opportunities, facilitate iterative product innovation, improve operational efficiency, respond to market disruptions, enhance customer experience and sustain competitive advantage. Data — and the ability to process, manage, analyze and act upon it — takes pride of place as the fuel that powers digital business processes.

In a world where business disruption is the rule and not the exception, enterprises are deploying upgraded and modernized IT environments optimized to support change. While “tactical IT” (maintaining existing systems) still accounts for a substantial proportion of enterprise IT expenditure, many organizations increasingly view IT as a strategic enabler of business reinvention. For this group, technology is the opening act, not the main event, and business strategy (led by senior executive management, not the IT department) is increasingly becoming the star of the show.