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The “next big thing” for IT: Connectedness

Vincent Charpiot
2020-03-02

I do a lot of traveling and talk to a lot of people, including both customers and analysts. A lot of the talk focuses on the changing role of IT in the era of digital transformation.

And one thing I’ve been hearing consistently from all sides lately – particularly from CIOs – is that IT needs to connect top-line growth opportunities with bottom-line costs. In other words, IT needs to build a business case for transformation initiatives.

That gets me thinking about the big-picture value of “connectedness” in general. Because right now, what’s preventing IT from building a business case is the insane complexity of connecting the cost of technological innovations with their business value.

We all see that the pace of innovation today is jaw-dropping. Breakthroughs in cloud, IoT, AI, 5G, analytics, blockchain, automation, stackable technologies, microservices, and more are blowing the doors off old-school IT.

But right now, the focus is on the innovations themselves. IT is trying to keep pace with each new advancement, understand where it might fit within the company’s strategic plans, analyze costs and benefits, and determine how to prioritize implementation.

The missing link – and the next big thing for IT – is interconnecting these innovations. Piecemeal  “dots” of innovation must be seen as part of a bigger picture. As IT has learned, nothing works in isolation. Maximizing the value of new technologies means getting them to connect and work together.

The cloud is an obvious example. Companies are now looking at how to transfer more application workloads to the cloud, move DevOps to the cloud, implement hybrid cloud and multi-cloud models, leverage advanced analytics to track application use, and much more.

But the key is not just understanding what the latest cloud innovations can do for you today – it’s understanding how best to combine new cloud advancements with existing data center capabilities to optimize productivity and cost-efficiency.

The business case for cloud comes together when everything works together: public and private clouds, legacy IT assets and applications; vendors and suppliers; platform services such as asset management and service desk; cybersecurity; development processes; tools and technologies. It’s up to IT to connect the dots!

One innovation that facilitates that effort is the Capgemini Cloud Platform – a complete set of advanced tools, technologies, and expertise tuned to maximize the business value of the cloud. It combines an advanced user portal with a full suite of cloud services so clients can optimize cloud capabilities and costs.

Another aspect of IT that requires greater integration and transparency is the application portfolio. Right now it’s difficult for most companies to aggregate all the information pertaining to their applications so that they can make informed, data-driven decisions about what to keep, what to replace, what to migrate to the cloud, which apps are the best candidates for the DevOps model, and so on.

Capgemini addresses this issue with eAPM, a groundbreaking solution that leverages a large anonymized application database across our customers, combined with our proven portfolio assessment methodology rendered through a stunningly graphical analysis and decision-making tool. This solution enables you to make informed decisions about rationalizing your application estate and how to eliminate cost and waste, and thereby optimize the operating model.

Takeaway for IT leaders

Those who focus on connecting the latest innovations and legacy IT assets will be the ones who can build a business case for transformation.

Capgemini has always been a leading proponent of end-to-end, comprehensive, connected approaches to IT. We will continue to strive toward integrated offerings and services that help our clients take full advantage of every opportunity of digital transformation.

I would recommend you read TechnoVision 2020, this guide is our specialist source of technology guidance which equips enterprises with a route map around digital technology trends and innovations affecting your organization both today and tomorrow.

If you’d like to explore the possibilities for your organization, please reach out to me via my Expert Connect profile.

Author

Vincent Charpiot

Executive Vice President, Head of Group Sustainability Accelerator, Capgemini
I am a senior business executive and global business leader with extensive experience in helping clients manage their digital transformations. I lead the Group Sustainability Accelerator and my focus is to ensure we go to market with a unique Sustainability Services portfolio and ecosystem to help our clients on their journey to Net Zero, in an evolving ESG regulation.