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Application lifecycle intelligence and IT know-how at board level

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Adaptavist
17 December 13 Adaptavist
Application lifecycle intelligence and IT know-how at board level
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Application lifecycle intelligence and IT know-how at board level

 

In his recent FT column, businessman and entrepreneur Luke Johnson paints a pretty bleak picture of the level of IT understanding on the boards of UK companies. Too few senior managers possess technology qualifications or experience, he says, leading to a profound weakness in many boardrooms.

Twenty years ago this might not have been a problem, but with information technology at the heart of everything a business does today, this lack of understanding at best hinders progress and at worst threatens the very future of a company.

Omnipotent IT and application lifecycle intelligence

As Luke Johnson says Whether it is production, the supply chain, digital marketing, research and development, customer insight, personnel hiring or product and profit analysis, the future is about smart machines and executives who know how to harness their power.

According to Johnson, most organisations are headed up by senior marketers or finance officers and rarely, with the exception of the likes of Tesco's Phil Clarke, by anyone with a background in IT. As a result, he suggests that there's a distinct lack of understanding about the power and potential of technology in the boardroom.

Taking a holistic approach

Clearly board members need a pretty sound understanding of information technology. However, in our experience the key is to focus on application lifecycle intelligence. Senior executives need to make sure that they have visibility, predictability and control at every stage of the lifecycle.

Our approach to this is built on our Complete Application Lifecycle Management (CALM) methodology. CALM looks at the application lifecycle as a whole all the processes that contribute to the design, delivery and support of a business software and applications.

CALM gives executives a deep insight application lifecycle intelligence into their information technology operations. It offers a roadmap of what needs to be done both short-terms fixes and medium-term optimisation and ensures there is the right balance, the right processes and the right tools to help:

  • control costs more tightly
  • manage risk more effectively
  • support innovation, and
  • deliver competitive advantage

Taking control

So whilst Luke Johnson suggests the boardroom needs to become more IT-savvy, for Adaptavist it's more about senior management having the necessary intelligence to make well-informed decisions on how their technology is being used.

We believe employing a framework such as CALM with its end-to-end approach, ensuring information technology is properly aligned with business requirements gives executives the genuine visibility and predictability they need to control their technology and realise the full value of their IT investment.

To find out more about how CALM and application lifecycle intelligence can help your business, contact Adaptavist.

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