For technology marketers who are looking for insights into:
- The profile of the modern day IT professional and their organizations
- The collaborative IT purchase process
- Vendor engagement
- Work habits and more!
UBM’s 2017 The Mind of the IT Pro Research was developed to gain critical insight into business technology decision makers.
Informa Tech’s 2019 IT Buying Research was developed to gain critical insight into business technology decision makers, and delves into:
- The profile of the modern IT professional and their organizations
- Vendor engagement
- The collaborative IT purchase process
- Work habits and more
Your Challenge
As the market evolves, capabilities that were once cutting edge become default and new functionality becomes differentiating.
Vendors use a lot of marketing jargon, buzzwords, and statistics to sell their solutions, making objective evaluation rather difficult.
The endpoint protection (EPP) market is overcrowded and fragmented, resulting in information overload and consequently, a difficult vendor assessment.
Disparate product solutions are being bundled into one-off solutions or suites, often resulting in less efficient solutions than the more niche players.
Imminent obsolescence is an issue. Previous EPP solutions have not adapted with the rapidly evolving threat landscape and are no longer relevant, resulting in breaches or vulnerabilities.
Critical Insight
Don’t let vendors and market reports define your endpoint protection needs. Identify the use cases and corresponding feature sets that best align with your risk profile before evaluating the vendor marketspace.
Your security controls are diminishing in value (if they haven’t already). Develop a strategy that accounts for the rapid evolution and imminent obsolescence of your endpoint controls. Plan for future needs when making purchasing decisions today.
Endpoint protection is a matter of defense in depth and risk modelling, there is no silver bullet protection and mitigation solution. As end-client-technology providers release regular product/software updates, security tools will become outdated. Multiyear endpoint protection commitments will leave you playing a constant game of catch up.
Impact and Result
The solution is a holistic internal security assessment that not only identifies, but satisfies, your desired endpoint protection feature set with the corresponding endpoint protection suite and a comprehensive implementation strategy.
Use this blueprint to walk through the steps of selecting and implementing an endpoint protection solution that best aligns with your organizational needs.
Read this Executive Brief to understand why your team should make the case to modernize your communications and collaboration infrastructure.
Understand why it's time to move forward with modernizing your communications infrastructure.
Discover the productivity and efficiency gains you can achieve.
Redefine how you think about communications.
Learn how to build a strategy that addresses both unified communications and collaboration.
Understand Info-Tech's methodology and approach to modernizing communications and collaboration infrastructure.
Your Challenge
Risk is an unavoidable part of IT. And what you don't know, can hurt you. The question is, do you tackle risk head-on or leave it to chance?
Get a handle on risk management quickly using Info-Tech's methodology and reduce unfortunate IT surprises.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
1. IT risk is business risk.
Every IT risk has business implications. Create an IT risk management program that shares risk accountability with the business.
2. Risk is money.
It’s impossible to make intelligent decisions about risks without knowing what they’re worth.
3. You don’t know what you don’t know.
And what you don’t know can hurt you – so find out. To find hidden risks, you need a structured approach.
Impact and Result
Stop leaving IT risk to chance. Transform your ad hoc IT risk management processes into a formalized, ongoing program and increase risk management success by 53%.
Take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s greatest risks before they happen.
Involve key stakeholders including the business senior management team to gain buy-in and to focus on IT risks that matter most to the organization.
Share accountability for IT risk with business stakeholders and have them weigh-in on prioritizing investments in risk response activities.
Highlights
• On average, concerns over Innovation was ranked highest, followed by Implications of Covid-19 • Respondents indicated innovation is important, but are mostly in process
• Respondents were mostly confident in implementing their innovation plans.
• Nearly half of respondents indicated their focus was on the customer experience • Most respondents expect some negative impact from Covid-19, with decreased profit indicated most, followed by decreased sales effectiveness, which are likely related
• The most common change in response to the Covid-19 impact were workplace and staffing changes, followed by technology investments
• Of the respondents, 92% indicated cyber security was important or very important.
• Continuous effort was ranked highest, and Mitigating internal threats, Identifying external threats, and Prioritizing identifying cyber risks were ranked next.
• While 95% of respondents indicated emerging threats were important or very important, 28% Indicated they were very good at responding to them
• For resiliency and sustainability, corporate ESG and R&S for internal operations were ranked as the highest priorities
iis the institutes innovation covid-19
High Tech Results from AMR Research ERP B2B Study GXS
This presentation discusses the high tech related results from a study conducted in late 2009 by the analyst firm AMR Research. The study looked ERP/B2B integration and the importance of having these two environments seamlessly integrated together. Updated April 2013
Your Challenge
Infrastructure managers and change managers need to re-evaluate their change management process due to slow change turnaround time, too many unauthorized changes, too many incidents and outages because of poorly managed changes, or difficulty evaluating and prioritizing changes.
IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.
Infrastructure changes are often seen as “different” from application changes, and two (or more) processes may exist.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
ITIL provides a usable framework for change management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every change request.
You need to design a process that is flexible enough to meet the demand for change, and strict enough to protect the live environment from change-related incidents.
A mature change management process will minimize review and approval activity. Counterintuitively, with experience in implementing changes, risk levels decline to a point where most changes are “preapproved.”
Impact and Result
Create a unified change management process that reduces risk and takes a balanced approach toward deploying changes, while also maintaining throughput of innovation and enhancements.
Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
Establish and empower a change manager and change advisory board with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.
Establish easy-to-follow intake, assessment, and approval processes, and ensure that there is visibility into changes across the organization.
Informa Tech’s 2019 IT Buying Research was developed to gain critical insight into business technology decision makers, and delves into:
- The profile of the modern IT professional and their organizations
- Vendor engagement
- The collaborative IT purchase process
- Work habits and more
Your Challenge
As the market evolves, capabilities that were once cutting edge become default and new functionality becomes differentiating.
Vendors use a lot of marketing jargon, buzzwords, and statistics to sell their solutions, making objective evaluation rather difficult.
The endpoint protection (EPP) market is overcrowded and fragmented, resulting in information overload and consequently, a difficult vendor assessment.
Disparate product solutions are being bundled into one-off solutions or suites, often resulting in less efficient solutions than the more niche players.
Imminent obsolescence is an issue. Previous EPP solutions have not adapted with the rapidly evolving threat landscape and are no longer relevant, resulting in breaches or vulnerabilities.
Critical Insight
Don’t let vendors and market reports define your endpoint protection needs. Identify the use cases and corresponding feature sets that best align with your risk profile before evaluating the vendor marketspace.
Your security controls are diminishing in value (if they haven’t already). Develop a strategy that accounts for the rapid evolution and imminent obsolescence of your endpoint controls. Plan for future needs when making purchasing decisions today.
Endpoint protection is a matter of defense in depth and risk modelling, there is no silver bullet protection and mitigation solution. As end-client-technology providers release regular product/software updates, security tools will become outdated. Multiyear endpoint protection commitments will leave you playing a constant game of catch up.
Impact and Result
The solution is a holistic internal security assessment that not only identifies, but satisfies, your desired endpoint protection feature set with the corresponding endpoint protection suite and a comprehensive implementation strategy.
Use this blueprint to walk through the steps of selecting and implementing an endpoint protection solution that best aligns with your organizational needs.
Read this Executive Brief to understand why your team should make the case to modernize your communications and collaboration infrastructure.
Understand why it's time to move forward with modernizing your communications infrastructure.
Discover the productivity and efficiency gains you can achieve.
Redefine how you think about communications.
Learn how to build a strategy that addresses both unified communications and collaboration.
Understand Info-Tech's methodology and approach to modernizing communications and collaboration infrastructure.
Your Challenge
Risk is an unavoidable part of IT. And what you don't know, can hurt you. The question is, do you tackle risk head-on or leave it to chance?
Get a handle on risk management quickly using Info-Tech's methodology and reduce unfortunate IT surprises.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
1. IT risk is business risk.
Every IT risk has business implications. Create an IT risk management program that shares risk accountability with the business.
2. Risk is money.
It’s impossible to make intelligent decisions about risks without knowing what they’re worth.
3. You don’t know what you don’t know.
And what you don’t know can hurt you – so find out. To find hidden risks, you need a structured approach.
Impact and Result
Stop leaving IT risk to chance. Transform your ad hoc IT risk management processes into a formalized, ongoing program and increase risk management success by 53%.
Take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s greatest risks before they happen.
Involve key stakeholders including the business senior management team to gain buy-in and to focus on IT risks that matter most to the organization.
Share accountability for IT risk with business stakeholders and have them weigh-in on prioritizing investments in risk response activities.
Highlights
• On average, concerns over Innovation was ranked highest, followed by Implications of Covid-19 • Respondents indicated innovation is important, but are mostly in process
• Respondents were mostly confident in implementing their innovation plans.
• Nearly half of respondents indicated their focus was on the customer experience • Most respondents expect some negative impact from Covid-19, with decreased profit indicated most, followed by decreased sales effectiveness, which are likely related
• The most common change in response to the Covid-19 impact were workplace and staffing changes, followed by technology investments
• Of the respondents, 92% indicated cyber security was important or very important.
• Continuous effort was ranked highest, and Mitigating internal threats, Identifying external threats, and Prioritizing identifying cyber risks were ranked next.
• While 95% of respondents indicated emerging threats were important or very important, 28% Indicated they were very good at responding to them
• For resiliency and sustainability, corporate ESG and R&S for internal operations were ranked as the highest priorities
iis the institutes innovation covid-19
High Tech Results from AMR Research ERP B2B Study GXS
This presentation discusses the high tech related results from a study conducted in late 2009 by the analyst firm AMR Research. The study looked ERP/B2B integration and the importance of having these two environments seamlessly integrated together. Updated April 2013
Your Challenge
Infrastructure managers and change managers need to re-evaluate their change management process due to slow change turnaround time, too many unauthorized changes, too many incidents and outages because of poorly managed changes, or difficulty evaluating and prioritizing changes.
IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.
Infrastructure changes are often seen as “different” from application changes, and two (or more) processes may exist.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
ITIL provides a usable framework for change management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every change request.
You need to design a process that is flexible enough to meet the demand for change, and strict enough to protect the live environment from change-related incidents.
A mature change management process will minimize review and approval activity. Counterintuitively, with experience in implementing changes, risk levels decline to a point where most changes are “preapproved.”
Impact and Result
Create a unified change management process that reduces risk and takes a balanced approach toward deploying changes, while also maintaining throughput of innovation and enhancements.
Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
Establish and empower a change manager and change advisory board with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.
Establish easy-to-follow intake, assessment, and approval processes, and ensure that there is visibility into changes across the organization.
Who is the Most Influential Tech Purchase Decision Maker - ITDM or BDMRobert Eakin
Both ITDMs and BDMs play a crucial role in technology purchases. Spiceworks' latest research sheds light on these tech purchase superheroes. Find out 'how' and 'when' these roles have the greatest influence on technology purchases for their organizations.
Your Challenge
Internal stakeholders usually have different – and often conflicting – needs and expectations that require careful facilitation and management.
Vendors have well-honed negotiating strategies. Without understanding your own position and leverage points, it’s difficult to withstand their persuasive – and sometimes pushy – tactics.
Software – and software licensing – is constantly changing, making it difficult to acquire and retain subject matter expertise.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Conservatively, it’s possible to save 5% of the overall IT budget through comprehensive software contract review.
Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price.
Learning to negotiate is crucial.
Impact and Result
Look at your contract holistically to find cost savings.
Guide communication between vendors and your organization for the duration of contract negotiations.
Redline the terms and conditions of your software contract.
Prioritize crucial terms and conditions to negotiate.
Your Challenge
Companies are approving more projects than they can deliver. Most organizations say they have too many projects on the go and an unmanageable and ever-growing backlog of things to get to.
While organizations want to achieve a high throughput of approved projects, many are unable or unwilling to allocate an appropriate level of IT resourcing to adequately match the number of approved initiatives.
Portfolio management practices must find a way to accommodate stakeholder needs without sacrificing the portfolio to low-value initiatives that do not align with business goals.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Failure to align projects with strategic goals and resource capacity are the most common causes of portfolio waste across organizations. Intake, approval, and prioritization represent the best opportunities to ensure this alignment.
More time spent with stakeholders during the ideation phase to help set realistic expectations for stakeholders and enhance visibility into IT’s capacity and processes is key to both project and organizational success.
Too much intake red tape will lead to an underground economy of projects that escape portfolio oversight, while too little intake formality will lead to a wild west of approvals that could overwhelm the PMO. Finding the right balance of intake formality for your organization is the key to establishing a PMO that has the ability to focus on the right things.
Impact and Result
Eliminate off-the-grid initiatives by establishing a centralized intake process that funnels requests into a single channel.
Improve the throughput of projects through the portfolio by incorporating the constraint of resource capacity to cap the amount of project approvals to that which is realistic.
Silence squeaky wheels and overbearing stakeholders by establishing a progressive approval and prioritization process that gives primacy to the highest value requests.
Your Challenge
Companies understand the importance of business process improvement (BPI) and recognize the touted benefits: cost savings, waste elimination, and process efficiency.
With this said, 70% of companies that embark on process improvement initiatives fail.
The high probability of failure is attributed to a number of factors, including lack of continuous improvement and failing to define measurable outcomes.
Our Advice
Adopt a forward-facing outlook. Don’t focus solely on the current state, set improvement targets upfront to drive the initiative.
Break problems down into root-cause variables. Don’t look at the symptom, dive deeper and alleviate the root cause.
Empower business analysts. Create a practical process improvement methodology that your analysts can follow.
Impact and Result
Kick off process improvement by identifying the goals and defining the improvement targets.
Start by referring to the operating model and identifying level 1, 2, and 3 processes. Once the team understands the relationship between processes, they can begin to map a level 3 process using a standard mapping notation.
Use qualitative and quantitative techniques for analyzing the root cause rather than the symptoms.
Ensure the design is aligned with the initial improvement targets. Focus on value-added activities.
Consistently monitor the process and assess the root-cause variables to gauge the success of the process improvements.
Your Challenge
Service desk managers with immature service desk processes struggle with:
Low business satisfaction.
High cost to resolve incidents and implement requests.
Confused and unhappy end users.
High ticket volumes and a lack of root-cause analysis to reduce recurring issues.
Wasted IT time and wages resolving the same issues time and again.
Ineffective demand planning.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new. A new service desk tool alone won’t solve the problem. Service desk maturity improvements depend on putting in place the right people and processes to support the technology.
Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change. Engage specialists across the IT organization in building the solution, and emphasize how everyone stands to benefit from the initiative.
Organizations are sometimes tempted to track their work under a single ticket type. Unfortunately, the practice obscures the fact that incidents, requests, and projects require radically different amounts of time and resources, and can create the impression that IT is underperforming. Distinguish between incidents, requests, and projects, and design specific processes to support and track the performance of each activity.
Remember, the value of any IT service management (ITSM) tool is a function of the processes it supports and the adoption of those processes. The ITSM tool with the best functionality is worth little if you do not build the right processes, configure the tool to support them, and work to improve tool adoption in your organization.
Impact and Result
Increase business satisfaction.
Reduce recurring issues and ticket volumes.
Reduce average incident resolution time and average request implementation time.
Increase efficiency and lower operating costs.
Enhance demand planning.
3gamma whitepaper the state of it service management in agile organizations (...Jens Ekberg
3gamma's whitepaper on The state of IT service management in agile organizations.
Swedish companies are struggling with the balance between governance, control and stability, and the need for greater innovation and flexibility. Conflicting forces are driving complexity. Regulatory requirements are increasing the demand for greater control and governance whilst at the same time customer demands are accelerating and changing. IT is caught in the middle – trying to balance stability, control and maintaining operations whilst, at the same time, delivering innovation.
3gamma has surveyed 100 IT leaders on how to manage the balance between control and innovation with a special focus on the perceived conflict between IT service management frameworks and agile methodologies.
An agile IT organization is not created through the adoption of an agile development methodology. There is no quick fix. Becoming a high-performing IT organization cannot be attributed to a single factor. It is done through focused execution of a business-driven IT strategy encompassing people, processes and technology.
3gamma’s survey shows that the issues experienced within the participating organizations can’t be attributed to any specific methodology or framework. They are generic and wide-spread.
From the financial sector, through retail, to media, the pre-requisites vary. The companies and organizations within 3gamma’s study that are successful in meeting their businesses’ requirements, regardless of size or industry, share a set of common traits:
* Customer centricity
* Communication
* Continuous improvement
* Removing obstacles
Your Challenge
Infrastructure, by focusing on the reliability, availability, and serviceability of existing platforms, is perceived as a cost center rather than a business enabler.
Business stakeholders look to external vendors, rather than Infrastructure, to exploit emerging technologies. This leads to duplication of effort, inconsistent standards, and ineffective IT governance.
Infrastructure directors are unable to draw a line showing how their activities directly support the overall business goals.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Think of the roadmap as a service, not a product. Its value is inversely proportional to the time since its last update.
Alignment perception issues can be addressed by having the infrastructure practice formally engage and communicate with business stakeholders.
Shadow IT can provide business-ready initiatives that need only to be tweaked to align with Infrastructure’s internal goals.
Impact and Result
This blueprint will help you build:
A formal channel and way of communicating value bottom-up and top-down between IT and the executive team.
A methodology to prioritize and create projects that generate business value.
A tool that can produce multiple outputs of value for different audiences using the same data.
An ongoing roadmap process, rather than a static document, that is able to adjust and react to evolving business circumstances.
Technology Buying for Marketers:Best Practices for Picking the Right VendorsAudienceScience
As marketing goes increasingly digital, marketers are tasked with buying more marketing technology than ever before. But for many marketers today, vetting, selecting and onboarding new technologies can be a complicated, time-consuming, costly process – and one that doesn’t always end with ideal results. Still, there’s a better way for marketers to approach buying technology. By using enterprise best practices honed over decades by colleagues in IT and procurement, marketers can create a better, quicker, and more cost-effective buying process.
Key points will include:
- Why marketers need to engage IT early in the technology buying process and what risks come from delaying IT involvement.
- What role finance, procurement and other enterprise stakeholders can best play in the buying process and how marketers can make the most of their expertise.
- How to best gather business and technology requirements and how to craft an effective RFP template.
Are you managing GRC in the most effective manner? Is it contributing to business governance or becoming a burden ? We will discuss the current state of GRC and recognized business drivers as well as supportive risk management infrastructures. Strategies for the alignment of business interests with enterprise GRC programs to establish a complete, auditable, less time consuming program which benefits from management visibility and compliance readiness will additionally be presented. Utilize GRC to manage your business, not to burden it.
James P Finn, Modulo
James has twenty five years experience in security and disaster recovery consulting, managing and delivering enterprise solutions to more than 200 worldwide commercial and government clients.
He has held various management and consulting positions in the information security field including as a worldwide IBM Corporate Auditor for Information Security reporting to the Corporation’s Board of Directors and the as the founding Principal of both the IBM and Unisys Security Consulting Practices and as Vice President of Risk Management for Modulo.
He has consulted in more than 38 countries (U.S., Asia, Europe, South America) on business, technical security and recovery solutions to assist clients to achieve and maintain effective goverance across the full spectrum of security and business recovery disciplines. James is a Microsoft MSRA trained assessor, a KPMG trained SOX auditor and also holds Business Continuity certifications.
He is frequently requested as a speaker at international industry conferences, live webcasts and TV and radio news shows and is the author of over 50 media articles on computer security
Kick-Starting Digital Transformation: Four IT StrategiesCognizant
For IT organizations, digital transformation can be an especially daunting task. Keeping up with and managing ever-evolving technologies and applications entails four essential components that help accelerate time to market, minimize project risk; automate and handle thousands of requirements, enrich collaboration and manage costs.
Info-Tech is the most innovative firm in the industry, and we pride ourselves on delivering better research than anyone.
Become a member and unlock a range of data-driven tools and resources to drive systematic IT improvement.
Info-Tech Research Group & Boardroom Events Value Prop PresentationHilary Carney Badoian
As a participant of Midmarket CIO Forum, you are given the opportunity to benefit from the Info-Tech offering (membership, advisory services, diagnostics & benchmarking, tools, templates including policies and job descriptions, vendor contract review and negotiations, and alignment tools) while having the overlay of the peer to peer vetting and communications. See the overview here and set up a call to speak in detail: https://calendly.com/MeetHilary/IT
Businesses today are more dependent on technology than ever. And, more than ever, they're looking to IT for ways to improve employee productivity, customer service and innovation. The challenge is that in order to achieve results with technology, IT and the business have to work collaboratively.
IT needs to be able to develop the right relationships and communicate with different stakeholders from a business perspective - not a technical one. As a result, the transformation of the IT department has become a top-level priority for many leading organizations. At the same time, business leaders need to strengthen their business technology IQ and play a more significant role in the governance of IT.
Learning and development professional Michelle Moore fills you in on the skills and knowledge required to help IT and the business collaborate and perform in this new environment. She will also share industry best practices for making the transition.
Join us next Wednesday (register at http://clearedjobs.net/jobfair-information/83) at the Baltimore Convention Center to meet with 22 of the MidAtlantic's leading cyber employers. Cyber Job Fair attendance is FREE.
The Job Seeker Handbook contains a listing of all employers and the cleared jobs they will be seeking to fill at the Cyber Job Fair. Cybersecurity experience or degree required.
The Cyber Job Fair is for both cleared and non-cleared cyber professionals.
Taking a Deeper Look at Today's Tech Buying ProcessLinkedIn
Understand why Tech buying is unlike any other B2B purchasing process. Learn about the vital importance of the IT Committee - who are the players, their motivations and a deep understanding of their content needs.
Who is the Most Influential Tech Purchase Decision Maker - ITDM or BDMRobert Eakin
Both ITDMs and BDMs play a crucial role in technology purchases. Spiceworks' latest research sheds light on these tech purchase superheroes. Find out 'how' and 'when' these roles have the greatest influence on technology purchases for their organizations.
Your Challenge
Internal stakeholders usually have different – and often conflicting – needs and expectations that require careful facilitation and management.
Vendors have well-honed negotiating strategies. Without understanding your own position and leverage points, it’s difficult to withstand their persuasive – and sometimes pushy – tactics.
Software – and software licensing – is constantly changing, making it difficult to acquire and retain subject matter expertise.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Conservatively, it’s possible to save 5% of the overall IT budget through comprehensive software contract review.
Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price.
Learning to negotiate is crucial.
Impact and Result
Look at your contract holistically to find cost savings.
Guide communication between vendors and your organization for the duration of contract negotiations.
Redline the terms and conditions of your software contract.
Prioritize crucial terms and conditions to negotiate.
Your Challenge
Companies are approving more projects than they can deliver. Most organizations say they have too many projects on the go and an unmanageable and ever-growing backlog of things to get to.
While organizations want to achieve a high throughput of approved projects, many are unable or unwilling to allocate an appropriate level of IT resourcing to adequately match the number of approved initiatives.
Portfolio management practices must find a way to accommodate stakeholder needs without sacrificing the portfolio to low-value initiatives that do not align with business goals.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Failure to align projects with strategic goals and resource capacity are the most common causes of portfolio waste across organizations. Intake, approval, and prioritization represent the best opportunities to ensure this alignment.
More time spent with stakeholders during the ideation phase to help set realistic expectations for stakeholders and enhance visibility into IT’s capacity and processes is key to both project and organizational success.
Too much intake red tape will lead to an underground economy of projects that escape portfolio oversight, while too little intake formality will lead to a wild west of approvals that could overwhelm the PMO. Finding the right balance of intake formality for your organization is the key to establishing a PMO that has the ability to focus on the right things.
Impact and Result
Eliminate off-the-grid initiatives by establishing a centralized intake process that funnels requests into a single channel.
Improve the throughput of projects through the portfolio by incorporating the constraint of resource capacity to cap the amount of project approvals to that which is realistic.
Silence squeaky wheels and overbearing stakeholders by establishing a progressive approval and prioritization process that gives primacy to the highest value requests.
Your Challenge
Companies understand the importance of business process improvement (BPI) and recognize the touted benefits: cost savings, waste elimination, and process efficiency.
With this said, 70% of companies that embark on process improvement initiatives fail.
The high probability of failure is attributed to a number of factors, including lack of continuous improvement and failing to define measurable outcomes.
Our Advice
Adopt a forward-facing outlook. Don’t focus solely on the current state, set improvement targets upfront to drive the initiative.
Break problems down into root-cause variables. Don’t look at the symptom, dive deeper and alleviate the root cause.
Empower business analysts. Create a practical process improvement methodology that your analysts can follow.
Impact and Result
Kick off process improvement by identifying the goals and defining the improvement targets.
Start by referring to the operating model and identifying level 1, 2, and 3 processes. Once the team understands the relationship between processes, they can begin to map a level 3 process using a standard mapping notation.
Use qualitative and quantitative techniques for analyzing the root cause rather than the symptoms.
Ensure the design is aligned with the initial improvement targets. Focus on value-added activities.
Consistently monitor the process and assess the root-cause variables to gauge the success of the process improvements.
Your Challenge
Service desk managers with immature service desk processes struggle with:
Low business satisfaction.
High cost to resolve incidents and implement requests.
Confused and unhappy end users.
High ticket volumes and a lack of root-cause analysis to reduce recurring issues.
Wasted IT time and wages resolving the same issues time and again.
Ineffective demand planning.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new. A new service desk tool alone won’t solve the problem. Service desk maturity improvements depend on putting in place the right people and processes to support the technology.
Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change. Engage specialists across the IT organization in building the solution, and emphasize how everyone stands to benefit from the initiative.
Organizations are sometimes tempted to track their work under a single ticket type. Unfortunately, the practice obscures the fact that incidents, requests, and projects require radically different amounts of time and resources, and can create the impression that IT is underperforming. Distinguish between incidents, requests, and projects, and design specific processes to support and track the performance of each activity.
Remember, the value of any IT service management (ITSM) tool is a function of the processes it supports and the adoption of those processes. The ITSM tool with the best functionality is worth little if you do not build the right processes, configure the tool to support them, and work to improve tool adoption in your organization.
Impact and Result
Increase business satisfaction.
Reduce recurring issues and ticket volumes.
Reduce average incident resolution time and average request implementation time.
Increase efficiency and lower operating costs.
Enhance demand planning.
3gamma whitepaper the state of it service management in agile organizations (...Jens Ekberg
3gamma's whitepaper on The state of IT service management in agile organizations.
Swedish companies are struggling with the balance between governance, control and stability, and the need for greater innovation and flexibility. Conflicting forces are driving complexity. Regulatory requirements are increasing the demand for greater control and governance whilst at the same time customer demands are accelerating and changing. IT is caught in the middle – trying to balance stability, control and maintaining operations whilst, at the same time, delivering innovation.
3gamma has surveyed 100 IT leaders on how to manage the balance between control and innovation with a special focus on the perceived conflict between IT service management frameworks and agile methodologies.
An agile IT organization is not created through the adoption of an agile development methodology. There is no quick fix. Becoming a high-performing IT organization cannot be attributed to a single factor. It is done through focused execution of a business-driven IT strategy encompassing people, processes and technology.
3gamma’s survey shows that the issues experienced within the participating organizations can’t be attributed to any specific methodology or framework. They are generic and wide-spread.
From the financial sector, through retail, to media, the pre-requisites vary. The companies and organizations within 3gamma’s study that are successful in meeting their businesses’ requirements, regardless of size or industry, share a set of common traits:
* Customer centricity
* Communication
* Continuous improvement
* Removing obstacles
Your Challenge
Infrastructure, by focusing on the reliability, availability, and serviceability of existing platforms, is perceived as a cost center rather than a business enabler.
Business stakeholders look to external vendors, rather than Infrastructure, to exploit emerging technologies. This leads to duplication of effort, inconsistent standards, and ineffective IT governance.
Infrastructure directors are unable to draw a line showing how their activities directly support the overall business goals.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Think of the roadmap as a service, not a product. Its value is inversely proportional to the time since its last update.
Alignment perception issues can be addressed by having the infrastructure practice formally engage and communicate with business stakeholders.
Shadow IT can provide business-ready initiatives that need only to be tweaked to align with Infrastructure’s internal goals.
Impact and Result
This blueprint will help you build:
A formal channel and way of communicating value bottom-up and top-down between IT and the executive team.
A methodology to prioritize and create projects that generate business value.
A tool that can produce multiple outputs of value for different audiences using the same data.
An ongoing roadmap process, rather than a static document, that is able to adjust and react to evolving business circumstances.
Technology Buying for Marketers:Best Practices for Picking the Right VendorsAudienceScience
As marketing goes increasingly digital, marketers are tasked with buying more marketing technology than ever before. But for many marketers today, vetting, selecting and onboarding new technologies can be a complicated, time-consuming, costly process – and one that doesn’t always end with ideal results. Still, there’s a better way for marketers to approach buying technology. By using enterprise best practices honed over decades by colleagues in IT and procurement, marketers can create a better, quicker, and more cost-effective buying process.
Key points will include:
- Why marketers need to engage IT early in the technology buying process and what risks come from delaying IT involvement.
- What role finance, procurement and other enterprise stakeholders can best play in the buying process and how marketers can make the most of their expertise.
- How to best gather business and technology requirements and how to craft an effective RFP template.
Are you managing GRC in the most effective manner? Is it contributing to business governance or becoming a burden ? We will discuss the current state of GRC and recognized business drivers as well as supportive risk management infrastructures. Strategies for the alignment of business interests with enterprise GRC programs to establish a complete, auditable, less time consuming program which benefits from management visibility and compliance readiness will additionally be presented. Utilize GRC to manage your business, not to burden it.
James P Finn, Modulo
James has twenty five years experience in security and disaster recovery consulting, managing and delivering enterprise solutions to more than 200 worldwide commercial and government clients.
He has held various management and consulting positions in the information security field including as a worldwide IBM Corporate Auditor for Information Security reporting to the Corporation’s Board of Directors and the as the founding Principal of both the IBM and Unisys Security Consulting Practices and as Vice President of Risk Management for Modulo.
He has consulted in more than 38 countries (U.S., Asia, Europe, South America) on business, technical security and recovery solutions to assist clients to achieve and maintain effective goverance across the full spectrum of security and business recovery disciplines. James is a Microsoft MSRA trained assessor, a KPMG trained SOX auditor and also holds Business Continuity certifications.
He is frequently requested as a speaker at international industry conferences, live webcasts and TV and radio news shows and is the author of over 50 media articles on computer security
Kick-Starting Digital Transformation: Four IT StrategiesCognizant
For IT organizations, digital transformation can be an especially daunting task. Keeping up with and managing ever-evolving technologies and applications entails four essential components that help accelerate time to market, minimize project risk; automate and handle thousands of requirements, enrich collaboration and manage costs.
Info-Tech is the most innovative firm in the industry, and we pride ourselves on delivering better research than anyone.
Become a member and unlock a range of data-driven tools and resources to drive systematic IT improvement.
Info-Tech Research Group & Boardroom Events Value Prop PresentationHilary Carney Badoian
As a participant of Midmarket CIO Forum, you are given the opportunity to benefit from the Info-Tech offering (membership, advisory services, diagnostics & benchmarking, tools, templates including policies and job descriptions, vendor contract review and negotiations, and alignment tools) while having the overlay of the peer to peer vetting and communications. See the overview here and set up a call to speak in detail: https://calendly.com/MeetHilary/IT
Businesses today are more dependent on technology than ever. And, more than ever, they're looking to IT for ways to improve employee productivity, customer service and innovation. The challenge is that in order to achieve results with technology, IT and the business have to work collaboratively.
IT needs to be able to develop the right relationships and communicate with different stakeholders from a business perspective - not a technical one. As a result, the transformation of the IT department has become a top-level priority for many leading organizations. At the same time, business leaders need to strengthen their business technology IQ and play a more significant role in the governance of IT.
Learning and development professional Michelle Moore fills you in on the skills and knowledge required to help IT and the business collaborate and perform in this new environment. She will also share industry best practices for making the transition.
Join us next Wednesday (register at http://clearedjobs.net/jobfair-information/83) at the Baltimore Convention Center to meet with 22 of the MidAtlantic's leading cyber employers. Cyber Job Fair attendance is FREE.
The Job Seeker Handbook contains a listing of all employers and the cleared jobs they will be seeking to fill at the Cyber Job Fair. Cybersecurity experience or degree required.
The Cyber Job Fair is for both cleared and non-cleared cyber professionals.
Taking a Deeper Look at Today's Tech Buying ProcessLinkedIn
Understand why Tech buying is unlike any other B2B purchasing process. Learn about the vital importance of the IT Committee - who are the players, their motivations and a deep understanding of their content needs.
2017 Role & Influence of the Technology Decision-MakerIDG
The 2017 IDG Role & Influence of the Technology Decision-Maker survey examines the evolving role of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) in today’s corporations, specifically as organizations move towards a more digital-focused business.
Elisa Koch, LinkedIn’s Insights Lead for AUNZ, shared the key insights and learnings from LinkedIn’s Tech research “Taking a Deeper Look at Today’s Empowered Tech Buying Process”.
How to attract and engage today's tech decision makers with the right content...Black Marketing
Peter Hubert, Head of Insights, APAC navigated the dynamic and changing IT sales landscape and taught how to attract and engage today's tech decision makers with the right content at the right time.
Peter Hubert, Head of Insights, APAC navigated the dynamic and changing IT sales landscape and taught how to attract and engage today's tech decision makers with the right content at the right time at TECHconnect Singapore 2015.
Visit the URL below for photos of the memorable event at the RedDot Design Museum: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/ms/e/15/tech-connect-sg/highlights
Streaming analytics webinar | 9.13.16 | Guest: Mike Gualtieri from ForresterCubic Corporation
Business success relies heavily on taking the right action, at the right time, all the time. And actions are dictated by data. But the batch-oriented, collect-store-contemplate model employed by Big Data Analytics technologies is incomplete because it does not make use of live data in real time. Without live, real-time data insights gathered are not up-to-date, and cannot accurately inform applications and services that would benefit from continuous, real-time context for time-sensitive decisions.
To thrive, businesses need to be able to use both live and historical data in their applications and services, continuously, concurrently, and correctly and the only technology currently capable of handling it is streaming analytics. Streaming analytics computes data right now, when it can be analyzed and put to good use to make applications of all kinds contextual and smarter.
This webinar held in collaboration with Forrester, Inc., showcased how streaming analytics applications can be built in minutes, to:
- Aggregate, enrich, and analyze a high throughput of data from multiple, disparate live data sources and in any format to identify patterns, detect opportunities, automate actions, and dynamically adapt
- Easily ingest streaming data from multiple disparate sources to multiple sources, within and between cloud and on-premises environments
- Analyze and act on data as it arrives, without needing to store, eliminating unnecessary security risks and storage costs
- Enable real-time analytics with existing business intelligence and data assets.
In 2013 LinkedIn launched global research with comScore, The Social Bridge to the IT Committee, which identified an influential group of tech decision makers, called the IT Committee. This research looked at why the IT Committee are using social media to inform their purchasing decisions, and why marketers need to engage them on social.
This research showed how critical it is that we change as fast as possible or continue to hurt the growth potential of our companies. As well as the ability to retain clients.
This year we wanted to understand how IT marketers can best educate and engage the IT Committee through content that is truly valuable.
Lean Communication - Product Camp Silicon Valley 2014Saeed Khan
Accelerating Revenue by Aligning Diverse Teams in High Tech Companies
Viewing business communication as the foundation of decision making is critical. Communication can be looked at as a manufacturing process where there are providers, consumers and transformers of information. Quality, timeliness and completeness are critical to decision making and those decisions, whether by marketing, sales, finance, etc. can have both top and bottom line impact on companies.
By optimizing information by applying Lean principles (e.g. focus on customer value, reducing waste etc.) companies can bring alignment across silo'd teams and drive to revenue in less time.
Foundry Role & Influence of the Technology Decision-Maker Research 2022IDG
Foundry's Role & Influence research was previously released under the IDG Communications brand. The study outlines the tech purchases that are likely to be made, who's involved in these decisions, and the information sources they rely on.
This research reveals the upcoming strategic investment plans of tech leaders. Results from the study are based on 200 heads of IT and examines the growing tech budgets, expected budget allocation for the next 12 months, and the evolving use of emerging vendors.
(Booth) Size Doesn't Matter - Event Marketing Best PracticesUBM (Technology)
Attendees won’t know the size of your booth until they visit the Expo Floor. Get on their short list BEFORE the event by educating them on your solution and how it differs from the tried-and-true vendors. These pre-event marketing tips help tech marketers get attention no matter how large your booth is.
What does the present state and future of cloud computing look like? What do IT pros have to say when it comes to the management, security, and costs around cloud? In this infographic, we’ve pulled together a snapshot of key data points from InformationWeek and Interop ITX’s State of the Cloud 2017 report.
State of DevOps - Takeaways for Sales & Marketing ProfessionalsUBM (Technology)
With DevOps on the rise, Interop ITX's research report provides insight on how IT leaders are implementing DevOps concepts, their top priorities, and how success is being measured. Barriers and benefits are also explored in this presentation with key takeaways.
Download the full report here: http://reg.interop.com/devops17?kcode=slideshare
State of Cloud - Takeaways for Sales & Marketing ProfessionalsUBM (Technology)
2017 State of Cloud provides a thorough analysis of one of the technology industry’s most critical resources – the cloud. Interop ITX’s detailed research explores influences of the cloud today, concerns, management, security and cost, and what it has in store for the future. Read the full report here: http://reg.interop.com/inlv17-stateofcloud?kcode=slideshare
State of IT - Takeaways for Sales & Marketing ProfessionalsUBM (Technology)
Learn the key takeaways about your IT prospects' biggest challenges and how savvy IT executives are overcoming them. Find out more about:
- How IT organizations are executing on innovation
- The most important IT initiatives on the agenda today
- The technologies with the biggest potential for positive business impact
- The skills IT professionals need to survive and thrive
Or download the whole report: http://reg.interop.com/stateofit/?kcode=slideshare
Celebrating its 20th year, Black Hat USA 2017 was the biggest and most successful yet. Sessions were full, both Business Halls were filled with positive energy and the feedback has been amazing.
Curious how many people attended this year and what they thought about the show? Check out the 2017 Black Hat USA show highlights.
Event Marketing Research: Pre Event, Onsite and Post Event Marketing Best Pra...UBM (Technology)
Through our survey of 403 business technology professionals, we found the key to industry event marketing success entails a blend of Pre-event, Onsite and Post-event (POP) marketing activities. POP marketing is not just important to those involved in event marketing—it's important to all marketers, as an integrated marketing mix is critical to the success of your overall strategy.
For more tech marketing insight and research, please visit us at www.CreateYourNextCustomer.com - a resource dedicated to technology marketers from UBM.
3 Tips To Make Infographics Informative & CreativeUBM (Technology)
Infographics are an important part of your marketing mix. In fact, they are the fastest growing content marketing tactic for the second year in a row! These are 3 tips to putting infographics to work.
How to Successfully Engage with CIOs Research Report. While the CIO may be the ultimate decision maker, the organizational purchase process is extremely collaborative; tech marketers must ensure marketing strategy reaches across all influencers.
UBM Tech surveyed several hundred IT professionals to better understand their thoughts about the effectiveness of executive events such as roundtables and forums. The survey revealed that such events are a potent marketing tool that can help you build relationships with new customers, and deepen long-term relationships with existing ones. It also provided valuable information on how to ensure success and get the most out of the executive events you sponsor as a way to stay close to your customers.
“The 4 C’s of Social Media” illustrates how tech buyers and marketers are currently using social media, and how these four strategies can be used to get the most out of future social media efforts.
The infographic was shaped by the results of UBM Tech’s 2013 Social Media @Work research report, which takes a deep dive into the role social media plays in the business technology market. The research was based on a survey taken by 462 IT buyers, as well as 155 b-to-b technology marketers conducted in late 2012.
Come learn how YOU can Animate and Illuminate the World with Generative AI's Explosive Power. Come sit in the driver's seat and learn to harness this great technology.
Financial curveballs sent many American families reeling in 2023. Household budgets were squeezed by rising interest rates, surging prices on everyday goods, and a stagnating housing market. Consumers were feeling strapped. That sentiment, however, appears to be waning. The question is, to what extent?
To take the pulse of consumers’ feelings about their financial well-being ahead of a highly anticipated election, ThinkNow conducted a nationally representative quantitative survey. The survey highlights consumers’ hopes and anxieties as we move into 2024. Let's unpack the key findings to gain insights about where we stand.
Digital Commerce Lecture for Advanced Digital & Social Media Strategy at UCLA...Valters Lauzums
E-commerce in 2024 is characterized by a dynamic blend of opportunities and significant challenges. Supply chain disruptions and inventory shortages are critical issues, leading to increased shipping delays and rising costs, which impact timely delivery and squeeze profit margins. Efficient logistics management is essential, yet it is often hampered by these external factors. Payment processing, while needing to ensure security and user convenience, grapples with preventing fraud and integrating diverse payment methods, adding another layer of complexity. Furthermore, fulfillment operations require a streamlined approach to handle volume spikes and maintain accuracy in order picking, packing, and shipping, all while meeting customers' heightened expectations for faster delivery times.
Amid these operational challenges, customer data has emerged as an important strategy. By focusing on personalization and enhancing customer experience from historical behavior, businesses can deliver improved website and brand experienced, better product recommendations, optimal promotions, and content to meet individual preferences. Better data analytics can also help in effectively creating marketing campaigns, improving customer retention, and driving product development and inventory management.
Innovative formats such as social commerce and live shopping are beginning to impact the digital commerce landscape, offering new ways to engage with customers and drive sales, and may provide opportunity for brands that have been priced out or seen a downturn with post-pandemic shopping behavior. Social commerce integrates shopping experiences directly into social media platforms, tapping into the massive user bases of these networks to increase reach and engagement. Live shopping, on the other hand, combines entertainment and real-time interaction, providing a dynamic platform for showcasing products and encouraging immediate purchases. These innovations not only enhance customer engagement but also provide valuable data for businesses to refine their strategies and deliver superior shopping experiences.
The e-commerce sector is evolving rapidly, and businesses that effectively manage operational challenges and implement innovative strategies are best positioned for long-term success.
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
For too many years marketing and sales have operated in silos...while in some forward thinking companies, the two organizations work together to drive new opportunity development and revenue. This session will explore the lessons learned in that beautiful dance that can occur when marketing and sales work together...to drive new opportunity development, account expansion and customer satisfaction.
No, this is not a conversation about MQLs and SQLs. Instead we will focus on a framework that allows the two organizations to drive company success together.
Top 3 Ways to Align Sales and Marketing Teams for Rapid GrowthDemandbase
In this session, Demandbase’s Stephanie Quinn, Sr. Director of Integrated and Digital Marketing, Devin Rosenberg, Director of Sales, and Kevin Rooney, Senior Director of Sales Development will share how sales and marketing shapes their day-to-day and what key areas are needed for true alignment.
Everyone knows the power of stories, but when asked to come up with them, we struggle. Either we second guess ourselves as to the story's relevance, or we just come up blank and can't think of any. Unlocking Everyday Narratives: The Power of Storytelling in Marketing will teach you how to recognize stories in the moment and to recall forgotten moments that your audience needs to hear.
Key Takeaways:
Understand Why Personal Stories Connect Better
How To Remember Forgotten Stories
How To Use Customer Experiences As Stories For Your Brand
Digital marketing is the art and science of promoting products or services using digital channels to reach and engage with potential customers. It encompasses a wide range of online tactics and strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, converting those leads into customers.
https://nidmindia.com/
The digital marketing industry is changing faster than ever and those who don’t adapt with the times are losing market share. Where should marketers be focusing their efforts? What strategies are the experts seeing get the best results? Get up-to-speed with the latest industry insights, trends and predictions for the future in this panel discussion with some leading digital marketing experts.
First Things First: Building and Effective Marketing Strategy
Too many companies (and marketers) jump straight into activation planning without formalizing a marketing strategy. It may seem tedious, but analyzing the mindset of your targeted audiences and identifying the messaging points most likely to resonate with them is time well spent. That process is also a great opportunity for marketers to collaborate with sales leaders and account managers on a galvanized go-to-market approach. I’ll walk you through the methods and tools we use with our clients to ensure campaign success.
Key Takeaways:
-Recognize the critical role of strategy in marketing
-Learn our approach for building an actionable, effective marketing strategy
-Receive templates and guides for developing a marketing strategy
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
The Old Oak - Press Kit - Cannes Film Festival 2023
Mind of the IT Pro 2017
1. 1 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Gain Critical Insights Needed To Engage the Modern IT Pro
2. 2 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
UBM’s 2017 The Mind of the IT Pro
Research was developed to gain critical
insight into business technology decision
makers, and delves into:
• The profile of the modern day IT
professional and their organizations
• The collaborative IT purchase
process
• Vendor engagement
• Work habits and more!
METHODOLOGY
• In August 2017, UBM conducted an online survey of business and technology professionals to delve into the profile of IT
professionals in North America
• Final data is based on a total of 285 qualified IT and business respondents
• The margin of error for the total respondent base (N=285) +/- 5.7 percentage points
• UBM was responsible for all programming and data analysis. These procedures were carried out in strict accordance
with standard market research practices.
Research Overview
3. 3 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
The IT Professional
EXPERIENCED, EDUCATED AND INFLUENTIAL
Average age:
47
HIGH CAREER ASPIRATIONS
38% aspire toward a C-Level position of CEO, CIO, etc.
17% have already reached their career aspiration
Average salary:
$132,000
Highly educated:
Bachelor’s
degree
or higher
Gender gap:
86% Male
Average
tenure as
an IT pro:
20 years
Average
professional
experience:
25 years
4. 4 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
1. Planning and delivering projects
2. Innovation or strategy
3. IT leadership and talent
4. Learning or education
5. Managing vendor relationships
Time Spent Daily (Rank Order)
4.6
average number of
IT projects typically
worked on at any
given time
Average personal purchase involvement:
$2.2 million
47% make technology
decisions for their entire
organization
76% make technology
decisions for multiple
departments or more
The IT Professional
DRIVING BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION
5. 5 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Average Company Total 2017 IT budget: $245 million
Q. What technologies or solutions has your organization recently purchased or plans to purchase in the next 12 months? Check all that apply.
IT Budgets
SECURITY & CLOUD SERVICES TAKE MAJORITY OF BUDGETS
52% say
their IT budget
will increase in
2018
IT Budget Allocations in 2018
67%
65%
62%
53%
49%
29%
25%
8%
Security
Cloud and cloud services
Networking
Applications software and development
Data and analytics
Enterprise service management
DevOps
Contact center
6. 6 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Technologies or solutions organization recently purchased or plans to purchase in next 12 months
Purchase Plans
52%
45%
43%
42%
36%
32%
31%
30%
29%
29%
29%
27%
27%
24%
23%
22%
19%
18%
18%
17%
15%
9%
Cloud technology & services
Infrastructure
Network security (firewalls, VPN)
Networking
IT training or education
Antivirus/antimalware
Analytics or Big Data
E-mail security/spam filtering
Mobility and wireless
Data analytics
Storage & containers
Applications software and development
Virtualization
Data centers and servers
Application/vulnerability scanning tools
Application management and performance tools
Data encryption/data privacy
Enterprise service management tools
Team collaboration software
Internet of Things
Collaboration, UC or video
AI
7. 7 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Q. When making technology purchase decisions, at what stage(s) do you personally get involved? Check all that apply.
Respondents are highly involved at all stages of the purchase process
The Purchase Process Journey
THE IT PRO’S PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT
73%
EVALUATE /
RECOMMEND
44%
SELECT
31%
APPROVE
Q. Which job function or title would you say is primarily responsible for each stage of a technology purchase (regardless of whether that job title describes you or not)?
68%
DEFINE
REQUIREMENTS
51%
SET VENDOR
SHORT LIST
71%
DETERMINE
THE NEED
EVALUATE /
RECOMMEND
SELECT APPROVE
DEFINE
REQUIREMENTS
SET VENDOR
SHORT LIST
DETERMINE
THE NEED
IT Staff
32%
IT Management
28%
IT Staff
42%
IT Management
32%
IT Management
49%
Executive IT
(CIO, VP of IT)
26%
IT Staff
45%
IT Management
36%
Executive IT
(CIO, VP of IT)
47%
Executive Corporate
Management
29%
IT Staff
42%
IT Management
32%
Collaboration happens throughout the purchase process
8. 8 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Under $1 million 68% 23% 9%
$1 million to $4.9 million 48% 42% 11%
$5 million to $9.9 million 44% 34% 21%
$10 million or more 45% 30% 25%
Q. How many people, including yourself, are typically involved in making technology purchase decisions for your company at each of these investment levels?
Q. Approximately how many people are on the tech purchasing committee?
20+ people5 to 19
people
Fewer than
5 peopleIT investment of…
Collaborative IT Purchasing
47% USE A FORMAL PURCHASING COMMITTEE FOR TECHNOLOGY DECISIONS
8.2 is the average number
of people in a tech purchasing
committee
9. 9 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Content That Makes An Impact
A VARIETY OF CONTENT KEEPS VENDORS TOP OF MIND
1
Expos /
Trade Shows
1 Infographics 1
Expos /
Trade Shows
1 Videos 1 Vendor websites 1 Vendor websites
2 Email newsletters 2 Podcasts 2 Vendor websites 2
Online training /
courses
2
Online training /
courses
2 Research reports
3 Blogs 3 Conferences 3 Social media 3
Vendor
White Papers /
Case Studies
3
Websites on
specific topics
3
Online training /
courses
4 Conferences 4 E-newsletters 4
Websites on
specific topics
4 Blogs 4
Non-Vendor
White Papers /
Case Studies
4
Non-Vendor
White Papers /
Case Studies
5 Podcasts 5 Virtual events 5 Virtual events 5 Virtual events 5 Research reports 5
Websites on
specific topics
Q. At each stage of the technology purchase process, which types of content do you use to get information to help you at that particular stage? Select your top three
content types down each column for each stage.
EVALUATE /
RECOMMEND
SELECT APPROVEDEFINE
REQUIREMENTS
SET VENDOR
SHORT LIST
DETERMINE
THE NEED
10. 10 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Q. For each of these technologies, approximately how long is the purchase process cycle from scoping out the solution to purchase?
Q. How does the length of the purchase cycle differ if you are purchasing from a new tech vendor, vs. a company you already work with or have installed?
Tech Purchase Process Cycle
MOST CYCLES HAPPEN FAST TAKING ONLY 3-6 MONTHS AFTER SCOPING THE SOLUTION
0 - 3 months 3 - 6 months 6 - 12 months One year+
Data & analytics 12% 34% 34% 20%
Cloud & cloud services 11% 38% 29% 23%
Networking 22% 37% 27% 15%
Security 21% 37% 28% 14%
DevOps 11% 34% 25% 30%
Applications software & development 15% 35% 31% 19%
Contact center 15% 27% 27% 31%
Enterprise service management 10% 28% 31% 31%
43%
say the length of the
purchase cycle is
somewhat longer
when purchasing from
a new vendor
15%
say it is
significantly
longer
DevOps, Contact Center and
Enterprise Service Management
purchases typically take longer
11. 11 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
83%
61%
58%
57%
50%
49%
40%
36%
34%
32%
29%
29%
25%
22%
20%
Identified a business need
Current solution is not working or is broken
Need to optimize existing processes or improve performance
New security risks
Availability of new technologies
Compliance or regulatory issues
To keep up with customer needs and preferences
Changes in our industry
Incompatibility or high cost of maintaining legacy systems
A growth opportunity or gain access to new markets
Budget cuts or other financial pressures
Increase revenue
Employee demand for new technologies
New management at our organization
New competitive pressures
Q. What kind of internal organizational factors drive the purchase of
technology at your organization? Check all that apply.
Internal Factors Impacting the Buy
BUSINESS NEEDS & BROKEN SOLUTIONS TOP LIST
12. 12 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
70%
59%
52%
48%
45%
41%
41%
40%
39%
35%
31%
25%
24%
15%
Company reputation or vendor is a recognized market leader
Can demonstrate how the technology will solve our business problem
Provides clear ROI
Responsiveness to our RFP
Offer of a product trial
Communicates the technical benefits of the solution
We have a pre-existing relationship with the vendor
Vendor has been recommended by my peers
Vendor is endorsed by industry experts
Vendor can financially justify the technology investment
Vendor articulates business benefits
Maintains a high level of visibility
Vendor offers cutting-edge technology
Demonstrates how my existing solution is no longer viable
Getting on the Short List
HOW VENDORS CAN INFLUENCE THE BUY
Q. What actions or other factors from technology vendors influence your consideration or selection of that particular vendor’s tech solution? In other words,
how does a tech vendor get on your short list for consideration? Check all that apply.
Average number of vendors
included in the RFP process4.3
13. 13 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Q. What constitutes a deal breaker when it comes to engaging with vendors in the technology purchase process? Check all that apply.
Deal Breakers
DURING RFP PROCESS – AVOID MAKING THESE MISTAKES
!Vendor is selling, not educating 63%
Vendor doesn’t adequately address risk and
compliance
56%
Vendor doesn’t provide adequate SLAs 51%
Vendor’s reputation has been tainted by a
security breach
45%
Vendor doesn’t provide adequate ROI info 39%
14. 14 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
say they are somewhat or very
willing to look at new vendors
84%
Identifying Vendors
DETERMINED EARLY IN THE PURCHASE PROCESS – DON’T MISS THE BOAT
Q. At what stage in the technology purchasing process do you typically begin to identify specific technology vendors?
Q. When putting together a tech vendor short list, how willing are you to look at new vendors, ones that you haven’t worked with before?
19%
27%
10%
13%
13%
14%
4%
At the very beginning, when the consideration of a new investment is first initiated
When we are defining our needs
When we are allocating budgets
When we are defining our business requirements
When we are defining our technical requirements
When we are researching a shortlist of solutions for consideration
When we are researching a shortlist of vendors for consideration
15. 15 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
68% say that
one-third or more
of the purchase
process is already
complete before
they engage with a
tech sales rep
Engaging with Vendor Sales Reps
PURCHASE PROCESS WELL UNDERWAY BEFORE CONTACT IS INITIATED
Q. In general, how much (what percentage) of a tech purchase is already complete before you engage with a technology sales rep?
40%
are half way or
more through the
purchase process
before they
engage with a tech
sales rep
16. 16 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Thank you.
To find the right strategies that help you
connect with technology professionals,
contact us at cync@ubm.com.
createyournextcustomer.com
17. 17 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
18. 18 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Appendix
Respondents: Primary Job Title
23%
21%
16%
9%
9%
7%
5%
2%
1%
1%
6%
Director/manager of IT
IT or security staff
IT Executive (CIO, CTO, VP of IT)
Software development, engineering
IT architect
Corporate executive (CEO, COO, President, VP)
Consultant (IT)
Line of business
R&D
Consultant (non-IT)
Other
19. 19 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Respondents: Industry
10%
10%
9%
7%
7%
6%
5%
4%
4%
4%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
2%
2%
2%
2%
8%
Government (federal/state/local)
Consulting
Healthcare/pharmaceuticals/biotech/biomedical
Computer/technology manufacturer
Education
Financial services/VC/accounting
Manufacturing and process (other than computer-related)
Construction/architecture/engineering
Business services
Insurance
Computer/technology wholesaler/distributor
Solutions provider/VAR/channel
Wholesale/trade/distribution/retail (non-computer related)
Banking
Media/marketing/advertising
Non-profit/trade association
Communications carrier
Service provider (ASP, DP, FSP, Web hosting)
Transportation/logistics
Travel/hospitality/recreation/entertainment
Other
Appendix
20. 20 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Information Sources
75%
61%
58%
54%
52%
50%
48%
45%
44%
44%
42%
39%
38%
33%
33%
25%
22%
18%
16%
Webinars
Websites on specific topics
White papers or case studies (non-vendor sponsored)
Online articles/feature editorial
Research reports
Vendor websites
Email/electronic newsletters
Independently sponsored expos or trade shows
Virtual events
Online training or courses
White papers or case studies (vendor sponsored)
Tech vendor sponsored expos or trade shows
Blogs
Tech vendor sponsored conferences with focused content
Videos
Independently sponsored conferences with focused content
Social media
Digital radio/podcasts
Infographics
Q. What information sources do you use to stay informed? Check all that apply.
Appendix
21. 21 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
Respondents: Company Revenue
$5 billion or
more 14%
$1 billion to
$4.9 billion ,
10%
$500 million to
$999.9 million ,
9%
$100 million to
$499.9 million ,
10%
$50 million to
$99.9 million ,
9%
$6 million to
$49.9 million ,
19%
Less than $6
million , 15%
Government/
non-profit
14%
Appendix
22. 22 | The Mind of the IT Pro Research, 2017 | UBM Tech 2017; All rights reserved
# of employees
Respondents: Company Size
40%
27%
33%
1,000 or more
100-999
Under 100
Appendix