CIOs expect digital revenue will grow from 17 percent in 2015 to 38 percent of total private sector revenue by 2020, according to a Gartner survey.
"As digital deepens, it's clear that hardcoded business and operating models won't suffice," said Dave Aron, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "What's changed is that there's a shift to platform thinking. Business executives need to look at their business as a hierarchy of processes, in terms of their business models, delivery mechanisms, talent and leadership. Platform concepts need to penetrate all aspects of a business."
"The digital era requires flexible systems and structures that can swap resources in and out, and change partners based on shifting priorities," added Graham Waller, research vice president at Gartner. "Digital visionaries harness platforms to create value through connections and interactions, rather than ownership of individual resources. This creates semiporous boundaries between an organization and the resources and components outside its domain."
Bimodal IT Disciplines Lead to Better Digital Performance
As a digitally disruptive decade emerges, bimodal IT is becoming real and increasing digital performance. Bimodal IT captures the platform characteristic of continuously building and refactoring capabilities for the future.
In EMEA, 39 percent of the surveyed CIOs are on the bimodal journey, and 27 percent are planning to undertake it in the next three years. The survey showed that 13 percent of CIOs do not plan to move toward bimodal IT, and that 21 percent are unsure.
Shortages of Talent and Money Are Biggest Barriers to Success for EMEA CIOs
Aron added that talent must also be treated as a platform. In EMEA, 17 percent of the CIOs said that the difficulty of finding talent was one of the biggest issues standing in the way of achieving their objectives, and 59 percent of CIOs said that there is a talent crisis. Seventeen per cent also said that money was an issue, which is strongly connected to it.
EMEA CIOs Are Leading Digital Transformation and Innovation Efforts
Forty-three percent of the CIOs in EMEA indicated that they are leading a digital transformation, and 33 percent identified themselves as the innovation leaders in their organizations. In EMEA, 69 percent of the CIOs have a strong partnership with their CEO.
"Not every business is ready to be a platform business, due to differing economic models, but the concept of platforms is important to all businesses
