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Q: What is your IT organization's role in business innovation?

Cutter Consortium research shows more and more organizations looking toward IT as a key enabler for business innovation. Indeed, says author Dennis Adams, "Being the source for innovation is often viewed as the holy grail for IT managers. Here, the message they hope to push is for companies to see IT as an innovative, supportive organization -- not as an overhead cost, but as an important business partner keenly involved in business success. The wise IT manager will make sure that he or she understands each business driver and how IT affects the success or failure of each. Whether make-money or save-money systems, the wise manager will be able to trace the impact of those systems to the company's bottom line and will be able to articulate those specifics in the language of the business. For those systems that are compliance systems, the wise manager will evaluate sourcing options that might maintain service levels but will lower the transaction costs of using those systems. BI or analytics will be an increasingly important area for IT managers to support, and the wise manager will ensure the proper tools and training are in place to support these initiatives."

* Hope for IT Stability: Staffing, Sourcing, and Innovation Trends" (Login Required) Cutter Benchmark Review, Vol. 13 No. 1.

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