Understand the concept presented at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2018, in Sao Paulo
At the opening of the press conference, held this October 23 at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2018, Donald Feinberg, Vice President of Research at Gartner, presented projections for 2022 on the growth of IT in Brazil, highlighting that investments in public cloud services should reach the mark of 5.2 billion dollars while investments in software should reach the amount of 7.8 billion dollars, while those directed to infrastructure should show a slight drop.
What is “ContinuousNEXT”?
For the company, “ContinuousNEXT” is the evolution of concepts that Gartner has introduced in recent years and that will be strengthened through Digital Transformation. How does this occur? The five requirements for CIOs (Chief Information Officers) to implement a “ContinuousNEXT” strategy are:
- Privacy;
- Augmented intelligence;
- Culture;
- Product Management;
- Digital Twin
Valentin Sribar, Senior Vice President at Gartner, explained that it is now time for organizations to be more open to adapting to change. According to him, leaders need to bring new practices, develop new competencies and create new ways to succeed – the ContinuousNEXT approach.
“The transition to digital is undeniable and at an accelerating pace, disrupting government and enterprise business models. These new models redefine the way organizations create, deliver and capture value. They challenge the way CIOs operate, fostering new mindsets and new practices for IT,” says Sribar.
“Nearly two-thirds of CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) and CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) anticipate the business model change due to Digital Transformation, and investors are encouraging these changes. They reward organizations that engage all products and services with digital competencies,” says Sribar. “They're not just interested in data – which is now old news. They want to know what you do with data through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. Leaders apply technologies and information in unique and creative ways to outperform their peers. This is what distinguishes these professionals from the rest. In this scenario, the ContinuousNEXT approach comes in”.
Dynamism
In an environment that thrives amid continual change, data scientists at Gartner have identified that the biggest indicator of success is organizational dynamism. More than just being business driven, and whether government models are free or regulatory, the key success factor is dynamism. It's about the ability to embrace change and adopt technologies in a new way. More than three-quarters of organizations struggle with dynamism. “How you adopt technology matters, and dynamism is a critical factor,” says Sribar.
Privacy
Mastering privacy and creating trusted digital connections is a fundamental requirement for “ContinuousNEXT”. If CIOs don't successfully manage privacy issues, the entire Digital Transformation process is at risk. Increasingly, privacy leads to trust, and trust is power.
However, due to recent security breaches, there is growing skepticism from consumers, which impacts trust. For the first time, a considerable group of customers and employees are not willing to give up security and peace of mind in exchange for convenience. Many consumers have already deleted part of their social media accounts or updated their privacy settings.
“As a CIO, you have a responsibility to maintain the protection of consumer, citizen and employee data,” says Sribar. “This often means putting someone in charge of a privacy management program, immediately detecting and reporting breaches, ensuring that individuals have control of their data. This is an issue that must be addressed by the board, but only half of the organizations have adequate controls”, says the analyst.
augmented intelligence
Augmented intelligence is the logical step beyond Artificial Intelligence, it is the union of technology with human capability. For example, there is a growing public opinion that AI systems will change the workforce, but Gartner does not see this as harmful to workers. “We believe that artificial intelligence and new technologies will help to create new jobs”, pondered the VP.
“Putting workers side by side with advanced AI systems, processes and robots allows the roles of these workers to be more impactful,” says Sribar. “Companies that today embrace Artificial Intelligence allow their employees to keep their jobs, albeit in a new way, making these roles even more meaningful and rewarding.”
Culture
Organizations must have a dynamic culture to enable ContinuousNEXT. However, culture is identified by CIOs' 46% as the biggest barrier to realizing the promise of digital business. Gartner analysts say that culture change doesn't always have to be big and difficult.
“Invade their culture to change it,” explained Sribar. "To the hack culture, we do not intend to find a vulnerable point to break into a system. It's about finding vulnerabilities in your culture and turning them into real changes that can be embraced. 'Hacking' means performing minor actions that are normally overlooked. Large invasions also stimulate emotional responses, generate immediate results, and are visible to large numbers of people at once.”
According to Sribar, many CIOs are spending 70% of their time in meetings or sending emails. They can get free time by canceling status meetings, replacing them with written briefings or updates. Leaders are changing the decision-making authority framework so that others can act. Gartner indicates that CIOs should be open to answering tough questions, not just dealing with problems behind closed doors, and should let the authors of “big ideas” become their CEO.
Digital Product Management
Digital product management is a fundamental requirement of “ContinuousNEXT” and accelerating its adoption means that if CIOs don't get started soon they will never be able to catch up with other players in the market. The Gartner 2019 CIO Agenda survey shows that top performers are twice as likely to make product-centric deliveries.
“Digital Product Management is not just a different way of doing IT. It's a different way of doing business. We're talking about treating IT as a product whose life cycle involves continual adaptation, evolution. We put aside the concept of projects with a beginning, middle and end”, explains Donald Feinberg, Vice President of Research at Gartner.
“Today, the most powerful companies blend digital technologies with products to create a new management practice. For example, no one asks Amazon anymore if it is a retailer or a technology company. She wins by being both. Tesla is a technology company in the automobile industry. Apple is a technology company, which is now in the healthcare industry. Digital technology and product innovation are becoming indivisible across industries.”
Feinberg says product managers will have to apply design thinking and agile methodologies to shape user experiences. Analytics and continuous intelligence drive constant product evolution, and continuous DevOps delivers weekly, or even daily, product updates. “That's why Digital Product Management goes beyond IT project management,” he explains.
Digital Twins
Digital Twins are generally used to manage physical objects such as jet engines and wind turbines through sensors and computer modeling. However, Digital Twins are evolving and getting more and more robust.
Cindi Howson, Vice President of Research at Gartner, stated that CIOs could create a Digital Twin model for each organization, what Gartner calls a DTO. With DTOs, CIOs can virtually track how people work, the systems and processes they have contact with, and how work moves from one department to another in their organizations. It's like taking the roof off the workplace and looking inside.
“In a DTO, you start with a real environment, with real people and machines working together,” explains Howson. “This generates continuous intelligence about what is happening in real time. It allows CIOs to model different scenarios, choose one, then make it real in the physical world.”
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