IT departments need to focus on modernisation now

Why? Because by the end of 2010, more than one-third of all application projects will be driven by the need to deal with technology or skills obsolescence, it predicts. “Our research, with thousands of clients across multiple geographic locations and industries, shows that most CIOs are struggling to cope with a set of portfolios in which an overwhelming percentage need to be replaced between 2008 and 2015,” says Dale Vecchio, research vice president at Gartner. “The scale of obsolescence … is a major problem, but it is compounded by the lack of integrated planning capability within many IT management teams,” adds Andy Kyte, vice president and Gartner fellow. “IT modernisation cannot be addressed as a short-term panic-response, because it is large and complex, and requires the wholehearted commitment of all IT management.” Gartner recommends that CIOs identify their key IT assets and assign management responsibility for each type. They should also identify the best individual available to take responsibility for comprehensive IT planning across all portfolios, and make this individual a direct report. Kyte suggests that they should also organise a planning session where all the asset ‘owners’ explain their IT issues to all others in a bid to seek synergies. “IT modernisation is not so much a journey as a change to the value system of IT management,” he says. “Once managers have grasped the value of their portfolios and the interconnectivity of all portfolios, they change their agendas so that they spend a lot more time focused on the key activities of asset life cycle planning, ensuring maximum value can be derived from every investment.”