2. WEBINAR Avoiding The Bimodal IT Traps And Pitfalls
John C. McCarthy, Vice President, Principal Analyst
April 6, Call in at 12:55 p.m. Eastern time

3. Tech management needs a reboot to meet age of the customer demands
A culture focused on service, discipline, and agility to meet customer expectations
Refactoring operational systems to meet needs for organizational and CX suppleness
Applying a new process toolkit to limit the risk of building and securing the new platforms
Delivery architectures to match external integration focus on partners for innovation
Governance where the business is continually engaged from a product management perspective

4. Pressures on technology management agenda continue to mount
78%
Business leaders say addressing rising customer expectations is a top business priority.
77%
Need to improve their ability to innovate.
67%
Say that undertaking a major business/digital transformation is a top business priority.
52%
Want to improve IT systems to better serve our customers.
49%
Improve IT systems to better support new digital technologies.
45%
Better integrate business and IT systems with our business partners.
36%
Designing systems that engage with customers and partners to sense changes and take action more quickly as part of their big data/analytics strategy.
Source: Forrester’s Business Technographics® Survey, Q with 2,231 global enterprise business and IT decision-makers

5. Under pressure, CIOs turn to a flawed bimodal IT strategy
Bimodal IT is the practice of managing two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability and the other on agility.
Mode 1 is traditional and sequential, emphasizing safety and accuracy.
Mode 2 is exploratory and nonlinear, emphasizing agility and speed*.
* Source: Gartner Group

6. Why bimodal IT will not cut it
It’s about incremental change to the status quo.
It creates a siloed two-class system that adds complexity.
It perpetuates the myth that the back-end systems can be left as is.
It leaves IT in isolation and does not reflect that the business also needs to change.
It’s an IT and a technology-centered approach that does not integrate with the business.

7. Business requires a bolder approach!
A faster business technology (BT) strategy is required to win, serve, and retain your customers -- a strategy that is not confined to IT, but instead:
Engages and energizes the C-suite and board.
Empowers the business to take ownership in an “activist program management” role.

8. The four customer-obsessed operating principles underpin BT
Customer-led through an integrated business/technology methodology
Insights-driven with new skills and systems of insight
Fast by closing the speed gaps
Connected with API and modern application- based ecosystems

9. It’s the integration of processes to create a new style of working
Nordstrom integration approach

10. GE’s 5-year technology management transformation
Overall vision: Improved efficiency with software differentiated products delivered-as-a-service which required new software, product, and platform capabilities and a simplification of business processes to drive speed and agility.
Product development changes: Created GE software with 2,000 people to build cloud-based ecosystem for IoT and drive a new combined design-thinking, Lean startup, and Agile-based way of working.
IT revamp: Corporate IT used public cloud/SaaS to: simplify IT, speed-up innovation, improve security, enable business self service, implement variable pricing, simplify business processes, and gain unlimited elasticity.
The result: the planned reduction of 30+ data centers and terminating 5,000 of 9,500 apps and moving 90% of remaining apps to public cloud.
Business mindset shift: Senior execs worked with business leaders and product teams to raise their digital IQ, instill customer-centered design thinking, and architect more modular products to support continuous development/improvement.
The resulting rebranded GE Digital: To simplify the transformed technology management team, GE software, and IT were merged into one GE digital group that is a P&L, not a cost center.

11. BT versus bimodal IT Key principles Business technology Bimodal IT
Customers act as the central design point.
Common design thinking methodology marries
customer journey mapping and ethnographic
research with Agile, DevOps, and continuous
delivery.
Tech-centered approach leaves much of the CIO’s team isolated in a customer-led world.
Fragmented design and development
processes do not link to customer-facing
methodologies.
Customer-
led
Systems of insight unlock insights from all data
sources.
The right mix of analytic skills, tech, and in-depth
business expertise turns insights into action.
More technology silos make data and insights
harder to access.
Organizational silos hinder business and tech
collaboration required to unlock value.
Insights-
driven
Continuous development and delivery drives
speed across all systems and people.
Aggressive technology simplification and
rationalization foster ongoing agility.
Two-speed operations create conflict and
complexity.
Glacial pace of changes of operational
systems stall innovation.
Fast
Cross-functional teams act as a single
organism to rapidly sense and respond to changes.
API-based integration and a cloud-first strategy
supports “promiscuous partnering” across
customer ecosystems.
Increased fragmentation leaves business
stakeholders unsure of where to turn to get
the right technology.
Monolithic operational systems remain unlocked and disconnected.
Connected

12. CIO’s need to ask themselves, “Which approach will:”
Win the approval of my CEO and board?
Grow revenues and differentiate my business?
Align more closely to the firm’s business strategy?
Help rebuild the brand of technology management?
Invigorate my team and attract top talent?
Help advance my career and that of my team?

13. Related research “The False Promise Of Bimodal IT” Forrester report
“Digital Turns Technology Services On Its Head” Forrester report
“The Operating Model For Customer Obsession” Forrester report
“Brief: GE Positions Itself As A Digital Industrial Leader” Forrester report
“Case Study: IBM Builds A Design-Driven Culture At Scale” Forrester report
“Case Study: BBVA Takes An Iterative Approach To Innovation” Forrester report
“Brief: New Innovation Options Change CIOs’ Services Relationships” Forrester report
“Digital Insights Are The New Currency Of Business” Forrester report
“Brief: Making Sense Of The Digital Services Tsunami” Forrester

14. Related research (cont.)
“Brief: How The Washington Post Closes The Experience Gaps” Forrester report
“Brief: Customer Journey Mapping Is Becoming Key To Digital Transformation” Forrester report
“Case Study: How DBS Reinvented The Asian Banking Experience” Forrester report
“Closing The Experience Gaps” Forrester report
“Brief: The Home Depot's Age Of The Customer Transformation” Forrester report
“Case Study: Philips’ Journey Toward Becoming A Connected Business” Forrester report
“The Future Of Business Is Digital” Forrester report
“Software Must Enrich Your Brand” Forrester report

15. John C. McCarthy
blogs.forrester.com/john_mccarthy