CIOs Are Uniquely Suited for A Strategic Role in Digital Transformation

Digital transformation means different things to different people in your organization. Marketing, operations, and finance teams (to name a few) all have a stake in digitalization, but their focus is necessarily narrow. Only the CIO is uniquely situated to ensure digital initiatives support enterprise-wide strategies.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Khalid Kark, research director for Deloitte LLP’s U.S. CIO Program, frames the opportunity this way. “Business leaders often view digital transformations based on departmental goals, without taking into account necessary changes to underlying technologies, systems, skills, and capabilities. But CIOs are well-positioned to see both the departmental tools that are the tip of the digital iceberg and the supporting infrastructure below the surface.”

How will CIOs leverage this strategic position to help their businesses tackle digital initiatives?

Adopting a proven approach to cost transparency helps CIOs communicate the impacts of technology on enterprise-wide business goals. Transparency gives IT leaders and their line-of-business partners facts about their infrastructure, labor, applications, services, projects, and other costs, which helps them make smarter decisions at a departmental level. But it also improves their ability to evaluate investments over time, in relation to peers, and in the context of corporate goals. This helps CIOs shift money and resources to support growth and innovation.

Answer questions with facts and accelerate decisions

As the leading provider of technology business management (TBM) software, Apptio provides a packaged cost transparency solution that is purpose-built for today’s complex IT environments. These apps drive insights on IT spend that enable new partnerships with business owners and help teams evaluate costs, standardize processes, harness resources, and communicate value that justifies new investments in digital, cloud, IoT, and more.

A real-life example of cost transparency’s impact on digital transformation

Consider the experience of Nationwide, the largest building society in the world. According to Group Services Director Debra Bailey, TBM has enabled her team to invest heavily in digital innovation by providing insight into the supply and demand levers that underpin Nationwide’s core services. Leveraging this insight has helped determine “a set of data and analytics upon which to make some key business decisions around how we invest in the future, as well as how we drive efficiencies in the way we run things today.”

»Learn more about how Apptio helps CIOs embrace digitalization by downloading 6 Best Practices for Optimizing IT Investment to Fuel Innovation.