The new IT leaders will be called upon to play four main roles. Once you start accumulating knowledge and experience in these areas, over time, as IT organizations evolve, you will become a very valuable figure.
Role 1: Watchman for trends
One of the reasons for the continued importance of the IT service itself. And IT leaders are the accelerating pace of technology development. It is impossible for members of management and company managers to track and comprehend all this. The new IT leader will be called upon to continually scan the horizon for both emerging technologies and emerging threats. The new trends of emerging technologies are even discussed at CIO Conferences and other tech summits.
You have to be a market expert and a risk manager in equal measure. On the other hand, you will need to sift through the never-ending stream of technological innovations. Also, identifying what your organization can use to gain individual market advantages.
In some cases, it will be beneficial to combine new technologies with business practices. Or other technologies to create promising innovations. In other situations, they will be able to provide the greatest temporary benefits, and then the pace of implementation will be critical.
Role 2: Negotiator
As changes continue, we can expect up to 80% of IT resources to move outside corporate offices. When this happens, the second critical role of the new IT leader will emerge. IT organizations will no longer be able to easily trust the terms of contracts coming from technology providers.
It will take the fine art of accommodating the vast diversity of views and interests of service providers, users, and internal IT departments to create complex IT ecosystems that meet the demands of the modern age. Therefore, the new IT leader will have to become an experienced negotiator. It will require the ability to balance a great many conflicting priorities and technological demands.
It is IT leaders who must ensure that conflicting demands are balanced in the strategic interests of the entire organization. This type of mediation does not mean chasing the best prices or squeezing the best discounts from providers. Its goal is different, it will be to build interconnected and mutually beneficial relationships.
Role 3: Aggregator of disparate information
One of the side effects of using services across such IT ecosystems. It is that key pieces of business-critical data will reside in different places outside the organization. While this can perform the desired functions using specific applications. The enterprise can lose sight of the many isolated islands of data scattered across different services.
This will create a huge risk that the vital information that should be born from the interweaving of data of various sizes will be lost. From here follows the third key role of the new IT leader – the role of an aggregator of disparate information.
The next-generation IT team leader will be the person who can identify the key elements of data. And interweave them in a complex and dynamic way for the organization’s strategic and competitive benefits. To succeed in this role, you must use the art of negotiation mentioned above to build deep relationships. And understand in detail the business processes that use these organizations.
Role 4: Business Process Innovator
The final role of the new IT leader is perhaps the most difficult and important. Technology will be one of the few sources of renewal and growth that will drive competitive advantage. However, it is clear that technological innovations will not be born within the walls of the enterprise.
They will be promoted by technology companies. But this does not mean that the IT organization will remain aloof from the innovative business. Just not, and the task of creating innovative business processes based on existing and new technologies will fall on the shoulders of new IT leaders.
It is very important for a new IT leader to be active in this role. Your ability to see through an organization, combined with your understanding of old and new technologies. It will make you a valuable person to any organization.
