Gartner Special BELUX-ENG sept-2021

GARTNER Gartner IT Symposium/XpoTM 2021, November 2021

SPECIAL

EMMANUEL BINARD, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, GARTNER BELUX

CIOs need to mix the right IT cocktail THIS GARTNER S ECIAL IS AN ISSUE OF E ECUTI E EO LE DUTCH IT-CHANNEL

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The World’s Most Important Gathering of CIOs and IT Executives™ 8 – 11 November 2021 | EMEA | Virtual gartner.com/eu/symposium

Guiding CIOs and IT executives to accelerate digital Join us at the center of technology, business, strategy and inspiration Hot topics • Application acceleration • Artificial intelligence, data and analytics • Cloud, infrastructure and operations • Customer and citizen experience

Learn More

• Cybersecurity and risk management • DEI and corporate responsibility • Digital business acceleration • Dynamic leadership • Funding digital

• The future of work • Innovation and disruption • Operational excellence and operating models • Strategic planning and execution • Talent, culture and change

gartner.com/eu/symposium

© 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. EVTM_932_1417250

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PREFACE

All hands on deck for digital transformation

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or CIOs, disruption is a daily cost, or at least it should be. But the disruption they have experienced over the last eighteen months has been an extreme we had never known. The pandemic has pushed organizations to their limits – reason enough to start talking about where we go from here at the upcoming Gartner IT Symposium XpoTM. The way forward is not just a matter for IT. Everyone – from executives to line workers – has a part to play. So, it’s no surprise that democratization of IT and citizen developers are hot topics at the moment.

Gartner also talks about business technologies, which are vital to the making IT more accessible and allowing apps to be developed by business departments. Research shows that 1 of employees currently identify with this, suggesting that almost half of all employees consider building and maintaining technology solutions as part of their work.

The War on Talent is still ongoing; especially in areas such as cybersecurity and data analytics, the talent is untapped, as Gartner analysts note in this issue. Managing employees requires the right leaders. That’s why leadership development takes centre stage when it comes to coaching at Gartner.

In the technological field, AI is a common feature of digital transformation, sometimes without people knowing that they are already using it in many ways. Many companies strive to use AI strategically, but only if they have the right data, and the people who know how to work with that data.

This, and more, will be discussed throughout the online symposium. See you there

MARCO VAN DER HOEVEN

Marco van der Hoeven

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IN THIS ISSUE Emmanuel Binard, Gartner

CIOS NEED TO MIX THE RIGHT IT COCKTAIL

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Gartner: Janelle Hill

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GARTNER EMMANUEL BINARD: CIOS NEED TO MIX THE RIGHT IT COCKTAIL PAGE 06 GARTNER JANELLE HILL: YOU’RE NOT ALONE

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GARTNER AN MARTIN ÖWENDAHL: THE IT SYMPOSIUM/XPOTM WILL PROVIDE THE TOOLS NEEDED FOR INSIGHT, INSPIRATION, AND ACTION PAGE 12

GARTNER FRANK BUYTENDIJK: DEALING WITH IMPACT OF SOCIAL FRACTURES IS ALSO THE CIO’S JOB PAGE 14 GARTNER ANNE ROMAGNOLI: THE TRADITIONAL WA BETWEEN BUSINESS AND IT DE PARTMENT IS BEING DISMANTLED BRICK BY BRICK PAGE 16 GARTNER LILY MOK: NOW IS THE TIME TO GET A FUTURE READY WORKFORCE PAGE 18

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Gartner: an-Martin owendahl

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COLOPHON

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GARTNER SPECIAL BELUX September 2021 Gartner special is published by Dutch IT Channel B.V. O N

LA T H C klantenservice@dutchitchannel.nl Published quarterly Website: www.dutchitchannel.nl Twitter: dutchitchannel Facebook: www.facebook.com/dutchitchannel M Rob de Kleijnen rdekleijnen@dutchitchannel.nl Telephone: +31 (0)6 402 36 803

Gartner Fellow, Frank Buytendijk

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E S Witold Kepinski (Content Director and Editor-in-Chief) redactie dutchitchannel.nl Twitter: witoldkepinski ublisher’s Twitter: dutchitchannel LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/witoldkepinski ublisher’s inkedIn: https: nl.linkedin.com company/dutch-it-channel Facebook: https:www.facebook.com dutchitchannel/ Telephone: +31 (0)6 410 03 906 Marco van der Hoeven, Teus Molenaar, Diederik Toet, Wouter Hoeffnagel, Jeroen Bordewijk, Hans Steeman, Anne van den Berg, Martijn regting, and Johan van Leeuwen O M Monique Vreeswijk m.vreeswijk@dutchitchannel.nl Telephone: +31 (0)6 281 17 617 S Marc ongbloed m.jongbloed dutchitchannel.nl Telephone: +31 (0)6 437 53 759

Anne Romagnoli

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L E Michel Rolvink m.rolvink@dutchitchannel.nl Telephone: +31 (0)6 145 42 854 M Yvonne Bansagi y.bansagi dutchitchannel.nl Telephone: +31 (0)6 235 30 399 Wim van IJzendoorn D colorscan BV, www.colorscan.nl Ten Brink, Meppel

Gartner : Lily Mok

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This publication has been compiled with the greatest of care. However, errors or omissions may still occur. The publisher accepts no responsibility for this. Articles gathered with permission by Dutch IT Channel B.V.

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‘CIOs need to mix the right IT cocktail’ CIOS ARE SPOILED FOR CHOICE WHEN IT COMES TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES. BUT WHICH ONES ARE RIGHT FOR SUPPORTING THE BUSINESS SUCCESSFULLY OR EVEN CREATING NEW BUSINESS? THAT’S WHAT EMMANUEL BINARD AND HIS TEAM IN BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG ARE WONDERING.

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mmanuel Binard, Regional Vice President Sales for Gartner BeLux, has been with Gartner for seven years. In his current role, he oversees sales in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Prior to that, he worked in telecoms for fourteen years, where he held various positions in strategy, sales, and marketing.

Gartner’s Be ux organization has been through these di cult times. ‘There is much to be proud of,’ says Binard. ‘Our business is based on a hybrid model. So, we can offer our services, analyses, and advice online without a problem. Over the past few years, we’ve been able to transition to virtual service delivery for those who need it rather swiftly.’

The first half of this year has even proven to be the best ever for Gartner. Binard explains, ‘That’s mainly because digital transformation is in full swing, and new roles have been created as a result, which opens up new business opportunities for us. Data architects are becoming increasingly important, while IT and business are more and more intertwined.

These are all trends that provide good prospects for us.’

CHALLENGES On the other hand, he acknowledges that there are challenges, especially when organizing events – a significant part of Gartner’s business. ‘Growing new relationships and maintaining existing ones has really changed. eer connections are less personal, so it’s more di cult to connect people. This year, we’re launching a new tool called Braindates, designed to help people get to know each other in a virtual world. But of course, we hope that the circumstances will allow us to connect peers in person from time to time.’

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EMMANUEL BINARD

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INTERVIEW ‘We are also learning a lot in this area. For example, we are fully committed to ensuring that attending a conference – whether virtual or physical – is an experience that lasts longer than the event itself.

For example, we are already trying to initiate interaction between participants much earlier, including deep-dive expert sessions, peer connection, and working sessions with the CIO team. These are all new things that online tools have made possible.

And after the event, we will carry on with this. Our content is fully accessible online, which means we can offer our customers digital masterclasses – a session with the customer’s team and a business partner where we tackle a theme, followed by a number of deep-dive sessions. Virtual Symposium is like Ne lix for digital learning.

It’s basically a great opportunity for us to present Gartner beyond our traditional contacts, including with organizations that aren’t our customers. We’ve even set up special programmes to help them.

There’s still a lot of work to do in implementing digital technology, training employees, and creating a digital strategy.’

In Belgium, Gartner has introduced the Digital Execution Scorecard, which makes it easy to identify the difference between digital ambition and digital reality. The tool has been used by of our customers, and they usually came to the conclusion that there are still a lot of gaps to bridge.

PUBLIC SECTOR David uyckx is the sales manager responsible for the public sector in Belgium: ‘Remarkably, we can see that many public sector companies are able to digitalize their processes and customer contacts faster. And in the public sector too, in some cases, there is no intention of moving processes that have suddenly been shifted online back to being physical again.

We can see a clear move toward the cloud

and hybrid working in the public sector, which affects the amenities provided.’

APPLYING NEW TECHNOLOGIES. As for the actual technologies used in digital transformation, AI and robotics are certainly on the up. Binard says, ‘We can see this in all departments of a company: with the CFO, in the supply chain, everywhere actually. avier Ousmane, responsible for FSI and EU, gave me an example of different banks and insurers for which AI is an essential pillar of their business strategy.’

‘My colleague, analyst aurie Shotton, wrote a research paper entitled: The CIO has to be a good automation mixer. He says that the CIO’s work is like mixing a cocktail.

You don’t make a good cocktail by simply throwing some ingredients together and shaking them... no, you have to add exactly the right amount of each ingredient at

DAVID LUYCKX

AN EXPANDING PARTICIPANT PROFILE The profile of those who attend Gartner events is becoming ever wider than that of the traditional CIO. ‘We are seeing more and more people involved in applying technology, including at C-level. This creates new roles and expands our C-level footprint.’

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION A report from the European Investment Bank for 1 says that a third of Belgian companies developed a new service last year as part of their investment strategy.

And a fifth of those companies invested in initiatives that are truly innovative in Belgium or even on a global scale.

‘It was very gratifying to read that. Because I have to admit that, in practice, I still come across many companies without enough digital ambition. I also see large gaps between IT and business in a lot of firms.

There’s still room for improvement there.’

That was revealed in a survey carried out

by Gartner itself. ‘It seems that digital transformation hasn’t gone as well in the Benelux as in many other countries. lenty of pilot projects were launched quite quickly, but often that’s where it stopped.

Many people who saw themselves as leaders were actually playing catch-up.

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XAVIER OUSMANE

knowledge online could help provide an answer to that disruption. No-one had dared to predict that we could make business fully digital from one day to the next. But it worked. However, it was only possible because there were people who dared to take on that seemingly impossible challenge.’

DISRUPTION ‘Deploying new technologies too rapidly can cause disruption, too. As a C-level executive, you have a choice: either keep up with developments and go along with them, or just ride out the disruption and fall behind more and more. If you’re not taking the time to make sure you stay ahead, then you really have to ask yourself why you want to be at C-level. Facing change and innovation is a vital part of a C-level executive’s work.’ ‘ ersonally, I believe that Gartner’s strategy should be fully embedded in our customers’ decisionmaking and processes. That is our vision, which is also reflected in our new corporate branding. We’re saying: Gartner delivers objective actionable insights to executives and their teams. Actionable insights means that we will guide our customers in the longer term and engage in an objective discussion about their decisions and execution throughout the journey. The digital mindset cannot be challenged on command; you need a trusted partner. Executive sound boarding is one of the most important activities we carry out here, and increasingly with both the business and at the boardroom.’

exactly the right time. That’s a science in itself.’

This is also the case when it comes to applying new technologies. ‘It’s not just a bit of R A here and a bit of AI there. No, you need to know exactly what each component does and apply it to right degree. I found that was a nice analogy. Because I see it happening time and time again. A CIO buys a new piece of software and wants to make the most of it, so they decide to roll it out at once, rather than thinking more carefully about how it can contribute to the business and then deploying it in very focused and, above all, measured way.’ CIOs will find plenty of inspiration at this year’s IT Symposium. ‘We’ve gone through a great deal of disruption recently: politically, environmentally... not to mention the pandemic. But the ability to transfer

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MANAGEMENT TEAM

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8 – 11 November 2021 | EMEA | Virtual gartner.com/eu/symposium

The World’s Most Important Gathering of CIOs and IT Executives™

Guiding CIOs and IT executives to accelerate digital

Join us at the center of technology, business, strategy and inspiration Hot topics • Application acceleration • Artificial intelligence, data and analytics • Cloud, infrastructure and operations • Customer and citizen experience

Learn More

• Cybersecurity and risk management • DEI and corporate responsibility • Digital business acceleration • Dynamic leadership • Funding digital

• The future of work • Innovation and disruption • Operational excellence and operating models • Strategic planning and execution • Talent, culture and change

gartner.com/eu/symposium

© 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. EVTM_932_1417250

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‘You’re not alone’

JANELLE HILL

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STRATEGY

FOR COMPANIES, THE PANDEMIC HAS THROWN UP MAJOR CHALLENGES, INCLUDING DIGITAL ONES. THERE’S NO ROADMAP FOR THIS, OR BEST PRACTICES FROM THE PAST. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, WE’RE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT, SO IT PAYS FOR CIOS TO WORK STRATEGICALLY WITH BUSINESS EXECUTIVES. AND THE CIO IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE OF A CONDUCTOR.

By Martijn regting

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anelle Hill, Chief of Research for Gartner’s CIO ractice, spends much of her time connecting IT and CIOs to the business’s strategic goals. ‘CIOs are currently facing a number of major challenges here,’ she says, ‘one of the biggest being is their concern for gross returns. This is true, of course, especially in the private sector, but also in certain public sectors where providing a full service can be quite a feat during these pandemic times.’

Moreover, everyone is struggling with the question: how do we get back to the o ce? ‘Gartner refers to hybrid working, i.e. working partly at home and partly in the o ce. But there’s no experience of that, and there are no best practices. And it’s hard to deduce any learning points, because the situation around COVID is still so fluid.’

demand for highly advanced technology applications, such as AI and the Internet of Things. It’s all so complex and so interwoven with the business that CIOs just can’t operate independently anymore. A strategic partnership with business executives is essential.’

It’s good to see so many companies deliberately hiring young professionals, who have grown up with technology, known as digital natives, Hill believes.

‘Even though they have usually only just graduated, they generally have better digital skills than most middle-level and executive managers. This new generation of professionals is helping to accelerate digital transformation.’

QUESTIONS REMAINING ‘Should we have all employees tested?

Should we say that only fully vaccinated people should come into the o ce? These are the kinds of questions that management are grappling with. And they’re not limited to the working-fromhome conundrum. Are we going to visit our customers in person? Are we going to travel to go to conferences? There’s no straight-forward answer.’

But if there’s one thing that we have learned from the pandemic, it’s how dependent companies have become on digital information. ‘Any CEO who was in any doubt about this before now knows: doing business and providing services today is absolutely impossible without technology. And this means there’s now a big focus on technological investments, so the return on investment can be increased.’

BUSINESS TECHNOLOGISTS Gartner refers to these professionals as business technologists. ‘They play an important role in the democratization of IT and enabling business departments to develop apps themselves. And research has shown that 1 of employees are classified as business technologists, which suggests that almost half of all employees consider building and maintaining technology solutions as a prominent part of their work.’

A lot of companies know that in order to obtain the right insights, they need to look for data scientists within their own organization. ‘Companies often have a lot more skilled people under their roof than they realize. And we are also seeing the role of the CIO changing alongside. All those data scientists working in different departments in the organization don’t report to the CIO directly, but still do work for them. The CIO is becoming more and more of a conductor, who needs to lead using influence and inspiration.’

YOU’RE NOT ALONE ‘I think the best advice I can give is: don’t try to do it all by yourself. There’s huge

MULTI-DISCI LINARY TEAMS Hill recommends that organizations work with multi-disciplinary teams, which

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include traditional IT staff, business technologist, and business experts. ‘These teams then have to coordinate the way they work. It would be di cult if the IT director had just planned major system maintenance over the same weekend that the sales director has to provide an analysis. And we also need to clearly lay down who is responsible for what.’

What skills and competencies does a successful CIO need to have? ‘I don’t know whether the necessary skillset has really changed. If anything, some aspects have become even more important. A good CIO needs to understand the business, strategy, and market. They need to be well aware of the latest and most popular technologies, and also understand the IT landscape of their own organization. They need to come up with ideas that inspire the business.’

COORDINATING ROLE ‘But these are all skills that were already needed for a good CIO. The only really new aspect I can think of is that the CIO should now be able to lead people elsewhere in the organization. They need to master the art of leading by influence. I wrote a paper on this last year, looking at the difference in the way traditional brick-and-mortar organizations do this compared with borndigital companies.’

‘I discovered that at least of natural digital companies had a Chief Operating O cer, in addition to the CEO and CIO – a much higher rate than the brick-andmortar companies. The COO doesn’t typically have anyone reporting directly to them. They can’t tell anyone what to do, but they do have influence. And that’s how CIOs need to be operating more and more.

They need to understand all the business operations and act as a coordinator between them all. They need to make sure that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.’

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Interview with Jan-Martin Löwendahl, Chair of the Gartner IT Symposium/XpoTM

Jan-Martin Löwendahl: ‘The IT Symposium/XpoTM will provide the tools needed for insight, inspiration, and action’ GARTNER IS LOOKING AHEAD TO GARTNER EMEA’S GARTNER IT SYMPOSIUM/XPOTM FROM 8 TO 11 NOVEMBER 2021, UNDER THE THEME OF REACH BEYOND. CIOS AND OTHER IT DECISION-MAKERS WILL GET THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO MAKE THE MOST OF THE MOMENTUM GENERATED BY THE CORONA IRUS ANDEMIC IT HAS RO EN THROUGHOUT THE ANDEMIC UST HOW CRITICAL IT IS FOR COM ANIES TO CARRY ON O ERATING DURING A DISRU TION SAYS GARTNER S AN-MARTIN L WENDAHL NOW WE WANT TO RO IDE GUIDANCE THAT ENABLES CIOS TO TAKE THE LEAD BUILDING A DIGITAL BUSINESS STRATEGY FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE BASED ON INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY.’ By: Martijn regting

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an-Martin wendahl’s day job is Research Vice resident at Gartner, but he has also been Chair of Gartner’s IT Symposium poTM in EMEA since . In this second role, wendahl serves as a liaison o cer between Gartner and the event organizer responsible for the content of the schedule and the presentations. His first year was a jump straight into the deep end – to put it mildly – all thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘It was the first time Gartner went fully digital for such a big event.

We had so many more attendees, and that’s the advantage of a virtual event. The disadvantage is that the interaction between speakers and visitors, and among visitors themselves was rather limited. This year, we had long hoped to have a hybrid event. But we recently decided to keep our landmark IT event completely virtual this year; we’re now focusing on how best to do this, based what we learned from organizing it in .’

STEEP LEARNING CURVE The pandemic and resulting virtual event in created a steep learning curve in what works best digitally to provide CIOs with advice, information, and food for thought, says wendahl. ‘We’re not quite there when it comes to the best formats for presentations. Half-hour breakout sessions are actually still too long, for example. But we are learning to be more modular in how

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we structure the event. Some subjects take up more time or call for more interactivity than others. And at lunchtime, you don’t have to offer that many digital modules, because people tend to want to have a quiet lunch to themselves.’

A second crucial lesson is about how interactive the sessions should be. This year, Gartner is committed to providing its analysts with many more opportunities to vary the interaction with virtual visitors at their own discretion and to enable more peer-to-peer interaction. Visitors – whether virtual or physical – also want to be able to talk to each other about what they’re ge ng out of a session.

‘Unfortunately, there’s no way to completely replicate a physical location. In Barcelona, we had an array of possibilities for all kinds of meeting rooms and plenary sessions. You’d think the possibilities with a digital event are endless, but there are technical limitations when it comes to managing the pla orm and quality.’

And that’s a shame, thinks wendahl, because the Gartner IT Symposium poTM is also meant to help people really connect with one another. ‘We’ve had half a million virtual meetings with clients over the past year, so scalability is no problem. But meeting in person is often more productive, because you’re together in the

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FORMAT AND CONTENT OF SYMPOSIUM/XPO COMPOSABLE BUSINESS The idea of a composable business rests on four basic principles: more speed through discovery, greater agility through modularity, better leadership through orchestration, and resilience through autonomy. ‘Companies that work with these basic principles can seize business opportunities faster more revenue and profit , run fewer risks, and reduce their operating costs,’ wendahl outlines.

‘You can then respond more quickly to changing market conditions with your organization, your processes, and your employees.’

And these conditions are changing faster and faster. The coronavirus is a perfect example of this, according to the chemist by education. ‘We’ve known how to make an mRNA-based vaccine for ten years. The problem was always how to administer it and how to scale it up quickly. The pandemic has greatly accelerated research into this, but that required a rapid shift for all the organizations involved, from pharmacists to municipal health services.’

AN-MARTIN LOWENDAHL

same physical environment. We hope that this year, or by 2022 at the latest, we’ll be able to scale up.’

REACH BEYOND: LOOKING AHEAD With the theme of Reach Beyond, this year’s focus is on the business outcomes of technology. In terms of content, the theme already underlines the need for CIOs to look ahead to a postCOVID IT strategy: technology leadership in a world disrupted. In terms of the format, Löwendahl also hopes to set a new standard for the symposium in 2022.

This year, virtual visitors can expect thirteen topics within three main tracks: technological innovation, leadership, and business strategy. ‘Technology still dominates agenda at , but that’s down from . Much more attention has been paid to questions like: do you have the right strategy and IT leaders to make that technology work for your organization? There’s no point having the technology if you, as a CIO, can’t convince executives and employees how to get the most out of it for the business.’

BUILD ON MOMENTUM eople are tired of coronavirus now, notes wendahl. They want to cast any fears aside and look ahead. ‘For CIOs and other IT decision-makers, this means building on the momentum generated by the pandemic push toward digital. As a CIO, you’ve seen how interested the board is in this, demonstrating how IT has managed to overcome the disruption to society and business caused by COVID-19. Now, we want to give them the tools to build on this, so they can... reach beyond.’

The leadership track is intended to help CIOs harness relationships built up inside and outside their own organization over the past eighteen months to maximize momentum and drive IT to the next level. How you do that to improve the support of the business is a core part of the well-established business strategy track. You’ll see that reflected in Gartner’s vision of a composable business and a composable enterprise.

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GROWING CORRELATION IT has long supported an organization’s mission and its processes.

However, there is a growing correlation between business and digitalization. Technology is growing in importance, so there are many that the three tracks tie in with one another. The keynote of the symposium – technology leadership in a world disrupted – will also address the interrelationships between IT leadership, technological innovation, and business strategy.

Gartner also wants to convey the message that IT is no longer a barrier to business challenges and opportunities. IT has proven that technology facilitates communication and collaboration all over: create everywhere, connect anywhere. wendahl continues, ‘The obstacle is now helping people discover those opportunities and overcoming the challenges: in essence, it’s about empowering people. imitation is in the culture of organizations, in the mindset of managers and employees. All this – how we capitalize on technology and IT leadership to achieve business goals and ambitions – culminates in the theme of Reach Beyond.’

THREE TAKEAWAYS What does Löwendahl hope CIOs and other IT decision-makers will take away from the Gartner event? He concludes with three points: • First of all, insight into the business outcomes of technology for their sector and their organization.

• Second, it’s about inspiration for CIOs, showing them that they really can have an impact on how their organization can take new steps after the pandemic to face the future with confidence.

• Third, and this is often the most di cult part for both organizers and visitors: Give CIOs the tools to deliver real concrete actions: ‘This is what I will do on the Monday after the symposium. I know that we can demonstrate what the business outcomes are, and I know we can inspire CIOs. I hope that this year we can really help translate insight and inspiration into concrete actions.’

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Frank Buytendijk, Distinguished VP, Gartner Fellow in Data and Analytics

‘Dealing with impact of social fractures is also the CIO’s job’ THE IMPACT OF IT HAS CHANGED DRAMATICALLY OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS, SAYS FRANK BUYTENDIJK, DISTINGUISHED VP, GARTNER FELLOW IN DATA AND ANALYTICS. ‘TEN YEARS AGO, IT'S JOB WAS PRIMARILY TO MAKE BUSINESS OPERATIONS MORE EFFICIENT. BUT SINCE THE EMERGENCE OF DIGITAL BUSINESS, IT HAS BEEN AT THE HEART OF THE BUSINESS AND THE BUSINESS MODEL, THE WAY YOU INTERACT WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD, BOTH ON THE TECHNICAL AND THE DATA SIDE.’ DURING THE IT SYMPOSIUM/XPOTM, GARTNER WILL TAKE CIOS THROUGH VARIOUS SCENARIOS ON HOW TO HANDLE THIS INTERACTION. By: Martijn regting

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he COVID-19 crisis has not brought us anything new, but what was already happening has been greatly accelerated, Buytendijk begins. Companies are primarily concerned with virtualizing the work environment. To the outside world, it’s about using AI applications to adapt the business model to what is happening in society, drawing on insights and predictions from data.

‘Over the past eighteen months, CIOs have been running around frantically trying to keep up with digital acceleration. In addition, the concept of the composable business helps to make processes, people, and the organization flexible and sustainable enough for whatever the future may bring. The idea is to divide everything into small blocks that you can put together in a variety of ways at any time to respond to upcoming events and changing needs.’

AGILE & MICROLEARNING Related to this, agile and microlearning has taken off enormously. No longer do we need to spend years on formal education or extensive courses, but – as is the case

with micro learning – we can frequently absorb fragments of information, knowledge, or explanations about specific tasks and developments. Buytendijk continues, ‘A new, agile way of learning is desperately needed because changes are ge ng faster. eople are already doing that a lot anyway. Often we don’t read a manual to perform a task anymore; we search for a YouTube video about it instead. And now it’s finding its way into the business world too.’

Fusion teams are a third internal change: pu ng people from various departments – IT, business, and the back o ce – together and giving them the mandate to work together to determine the best way to deploy IT. Here too, you can see where the composable business comes in: fusion teams that are structured but vary by subject being put together and deployed.

This is a terrific learning path for the CIO, says Buytendijk. ‘You will learn how you and your employees will need to start learning differently and how to facilitate this for everyone; you will learn to work together differently to create a more agile way to run IT in the organization; you’ll

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learn how to virtualize the processes in the organization, all in accordance with the concept of the composable business.’

IMPACT ON SOCIETY A CIO shouldn’t just focus on the impact of IT on operations and the business, but also on society as a whole. ‘With the choices you make in IT and how you use data, you also influence the world outside your company. In terms of imaging, but also the actual impact – be it positive or negative.’

The increasing emphasis on IT and data usage does have a downside. More and more people are concerned about what is happening with their data. That’s the trouble with zero-knowledge computing: how can you make business decisions without using large amounts of data?

That also requires another way to deal with data. Until now, the dominating trend has been to store data for no particular reason, allowing it to be used independently of the source system for each type of application.

Now, we are seeing an increasing tendency toward storing data for a specific purpose. ‘ ust look at security,’ says Buytendijk.

‘That’s about how you as a company

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SOCIETY in every area.

Buytendijk says that the scenarios are based on profound research into the fractures in society, which occur on when there is a lack of interaction, when the interaction is polarizing, or when there is no attention paid to the greater good.

FRACTURES ‘Fractures include a lack of mutual trust between societal players, a lack of diversity, the existence of separate realities – each one in its own bubble – and the decline in the degree to which ideas are still exchanged. Conversely, there is an increasing lack of interoperability, from money – think of all the kinds of cryptocurrencies – to information. We know from our surveys that there is no single subject that stands out more than the other, but that many social fractures are emerging at the same time. You’ll soon be surprised by what’s coming at you out of society.’

Normally, Buytendijk says, these scenarios are used for long-term planning, five or ten years ahead. But it’s a different story on this subject. ‘As a CIO, you can’t focus on just one subject, nor can you determine what that subject is – it’s society that determines it for you, and you just have to deal with it.’

FRANK BUYTENDIJK

protect you from the evil in the outside world. But with the rise of more and more smart applications – smart home, smart cities, and so on – security is increasingly the opposite. How do you protect the users of those smart applications or the people who have to deal with them as citizens against data breaches or misuse by hackers, governments, or even by your very own company. Security has become part of product management.’

AN EXPANDING ROLE At a macro level, these developments mean that a company or a CIO could also be becoming more and more concerned about their own role and impact in society, and they feel expected to have or develop an opinion on this. ‘And all other societal issues too, for that matter,’ Buytendijk continues. ‘As a CIO, you need to be aware

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that you might be expected to do something that doesn’t directly relate to your job such as ensuring data and technology is used responsibly. Once again, you as a representative of the company need to provide an answer.’

According to Buytendijk, society is increasingly demanding this from people who more or less represent a company.

‘CIOs might see this as a distraction from their real job, but it’s actually just an extension to your duties.’

PROVIDING GUIDANCE In short, CIOs can no longer treat their organization or managers as operating independent of society. Gartner will be presenting four scenarios at the November symposium, looking at what developments might be at play here, with a view to provide guidance on how to deal with this

VOICE OF SOCIETY You already need to listen to the voice of customers, shareholders, and employees.

Now, you have the voice of society to an increasing extent. As a CIO, you can deal with this in different ways, Buytendijk explains. You can see that voice as a way to differentiate yourself by engaging with customers in a new way about what matters to them. You could just ignore that voice and plough on by focusing on your organization’s products and services. Or you can watch how others do it and wait.

‘We want to study all these directions,’ says Buytendijk. ‘The most important question that we need to answer is: as a C-level representative of your company, should you or should you not talk about societal issues? If you want to know the answer, I recommend that you attend that part of our symposium. Because even if you don’t intend to do address those issues externally, you will encounter those social fractures internally as a CIO. Ultimately, your department too is a reflection of society.’

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‘The traditional wall betweenbusiness and IT is beingdismantled brick by brick’ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS A BROAD CONCE T AND IT CAN MEAN DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT E ECUTI ES BUT THERE S ONE COMMON DENOMINATOR THAT NO-ONE CAN IGNORE THE UNSTO ABLE DIGITAL DE ELO MENTS AS WAS CLEAR DURING THE CO IDANDEMIC THIS DEMONSTRATES THE ALUE OF GARTNER S E ECUTI E ROGRAM WHERE EO LE WHO HA E EARNED THEIR STRI ES IN THE FIELD RO IDE SU ORT TO CIOS

By Martijn regting

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nne Romagnoli is responsible for Executive rograms E in Belgium and Luxembourg. She has been with Gartner since June 2015 and had always worked in the financial sector prior to that. She worked in consultancy for Accenture for eleven years, as well as for a large bank in uxembourg, and was CIO of Delta Lloyd Life Belgium for eight years.

‘I was actually a Gartner customer at Delta loyd,’ she says. ‘I took part in the Executive rogram myself, which is how Gartner found me, and they asked if I wanted to become an Executive artner.

The timing was perfect; the Delta loyd Group was about to be sold to Nationale Nederlanden, so I was looking for a new role.’ And she found it at Gartner – guiding organizations and their C-level executives through their digital transformation.

COST-CONSCIOUS Digital transformation is a very broad concept, but it covers several challenges that many CIOs face. ‘I can mention a number of things that we are seeing a lot.

First of all, I see the market has become much more cost-conscious, especially because of COVID, which has had a noticeably negative impact on many companies, causing them to tighten the

purse strings.’

For Gartner, which advises these companies, it means two things. ‘On the one hand, we help organizations to negotiate better and more shrewdly with their suppliers. And on the other, we sometimes recommend investing more in IT to reduce operational costs. For example, the higher the level of automation, the less you have to spend on additional employees.’

AGILITY IN DEMAND But being conscious of costs is not the only aspect. ‘Digital transformation is often initiated by customers. And that means that companies need to invest money right away, which they free up by operating more cost-effectively, so they can achieve that digital transformation. But then the question arises: where do you start? Do you need to invest in a digital sales channel or improve digital support for customers?

Or is it more important to digitalize the workforce at a time when practically noone is working in the o ce?’

And no matter what choices you make, it almost always means that the IT Services Delivery Model needs to be adapted.

‘Ultimately, IT needs to be more agile and responsive to strategic choices. The demand for agility has increased dramatically.’

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ROBOTICS This touches on the trend towards robotics and R A, amongst other things. ‘That’s certainly on the CIO’s agenda, especially when it comes to automating primary processes. Robotics and AI technologies are still mainly used internally, to save costs or to improve the quality of the decisions that need to be made. But AI is used a little less for customer applications.

That’s because customers in Europe aren’t so used to cha ng with robots.’

The democratization of IT, also known as citizen development, is another item on the agenda. ‘This trend is certainly linked to the previously mentioned IT delivery methods. We see a clear trend that the business is increasingly willing – or even demanding – to be involved in IT. Business leaders are ge ng in with fusion teams, which are also responsible for delivering IT solutions. The traditional wall between business and IT is being dismantled brick by brick.’

CEO This new a tude that the business is adopting has, to some extent, implications for the executives it deals with in E . ‘Our customers are and remain the executives with responsibility for using technology.

Traditionally, of course, these are the CIOs

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INTERVIEW

primarily, but we are increasingly working with Chief Digital O cers or Chief Data O cers. Sometimes, we also talk to Chief Operating O cers.’

‘When working with these C-level executives, we usually work with their boss, their CEO, too. Of course, the person who we’re actually in touch with ultimately depends on the subject. For example, when we advise on strategic workforce planning, we almost always deal with the Chief HR O cer.’

EAGER TO TRANSFORM How far along companies are in their digital transformation journey mostly depends on the sector.

‘Belgium and uxembourg are both small countries, so we often have relatively dynamic customers. In the commercial sector, the head o ces of the companies we work with are often located elsewhere.’

‘Of course, this isn’t the case in the public sector, and I have to say that I am often positively surprised at the pace they are making in their digital transformation. Generally speaking, the market is not only aware of the need to digitally transform, but they’re also very eager to.’

IT SYMPOSIUM For executives with questions about digital transformation, the IT Symposium is the best place to get answers. ‘Thinking back to when I was on the other end of the Gartner Executive rogram myself, I went to the IT Symposium to determine or refine my medium-term strategy.’

‘You typically come to the IT Symposium to reflect, to hear about the possibilities, what others are doing, what the market looks like… but of course, a lot of customers come up with more specific questions. For an IT manager, it’s important to constantly discover and understand the trends, so you can translate these into what you need to do yourself to take advantage of them and improve your technology offer and service.’

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ANNE ROMAGNOLI

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Lily Mok, Vice President, Analyst with Gartner:

‘Now is the time to get a futureready workforce’ OVER THE PAST 21 YEARS OF HER CAREER AT GARTNER, LILY MOK HAS SEEN THE OPPORTUNITIES OF A FUTURE-READY WORKFORCE ASS BY SE ERAL TIMES SUCH A WORKFORCE IS NEEDED TO RES OND UICKLY TO CHANGING MARKET CONDITIONS THE ANALYST BELIE ES THAT THE ONGOING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATED BY THE IM ACT OF CO IDIS THE RIME O ORTUNITY TO SUCCEED By: Martijn regting

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ompanies and IT departments have been on a rollercoaster for the last eighteen months. reviously, IT was mostly focused on transactional and operational support.

Now, IT decision-makers and their people suddenly had to massive scale up the ability to hold virtual meetings and work from home securely. And that was quite the challenge.

‘For IT departments, it was also an opportunity, because they have since proven just how important IT is,’ says Mok. ‘The IT department made sure that organizations could allow their employees to work at home as a result of COVID-19, handle logistical challenges, and change communication with customers and business models quickly as needed.’

SCALING UP & FLEXIBILITY This has led to scaling up and making IT capacity more flexible, which is increasingly cloud-based. As for homeworkers, they needed connectivity and security. ‘Many CIOs I’ve spoken to during the pandemic said that their department was already quite flexible, especially compared with other departments. Some have become a sort of role model in that respect. If it’s possible to make IT flexible and scalable,

it’s also possible to do that with the business processes that rely on this IT.’ According to Mok, many leadership practices had to be adapted to motivate people in a virtual or hybrid working environment. ‘Managers were afraid that people working at home would be less productive. Now that this has been shown not to be the case, managers at every level, including C-level, will need to be more flexible in managing their people. So, disruptions like COVID seem to have a huge influence in steering the mindset and behaviour of managers and employees in a new direction, with technology to support it.’

ANOTHER MINDSET That changing mindset must now be adopted by CIOs to ensure the importance of IT doesn’t fall on deaf ears in the boardroom. They have proven that they can make a huge impact in the way

‘One problem is that companies often restrict themselves in finding IT talent’

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companies work quickly, flexibly, and with scalability. Mok continues, ‘They must now use draw on those clear results at C-level to better address the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly digital society and world. That’s a new, higher level than the transactional and operational support of the past.’

Another important change to continue now is the ‘democratization’ of IT. This means that IT no longer has to serve as just the technological decision-maker and department, Mok maintains. IT, business, and back o ce departments such as HR and administration must work together in fusion teams to determine what IT needs to support the departments and the organization as a whole. And not just here and there, but continuously, for a futureproof organization and workforce.

That won’t be easy, Mok admits. Many CIOs are still busy consolidating what they have put into IT infrastructure, systems,

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FUTURE-READY WORKFORCE

and applications since the COVID-19 pandemic began. At the same time, they need to be operating at that higher level of IT, so their organization can address future opportunities, challenges, and disruption.

That is a rather complicated balancing act.

‘Those who can do this will help their organization reap the benefits of the pandemic and secure their organization’s future for the long term. Those who can’t do this themselves will need to seek help internally or externally if they want their organization to do more than just survive.’

FUTURE-READY WORKFORCE A future-proof IT environment needs a future-ready workforce – something that Mok has long been campaigning for.

Employees and the flexible workplace that they need to get used to are crucial components of this. Only with a futureready workforce can organizations face opportunities, challenges, and disruption with confidence.

‘Some things you can’t see coming, so you need to be able to change your processes and your employees quickly. But organizations are often already poorly equipped to deal with the changes that we do see coming, because employees aren’t given the right skills, profiles, knowledge, and competencies to adapt to changing market conditions swiftly.’

DYNAMIC SKILLS MANAGEMENT Mok focuses on helping CIOs and HR leaders develop strategies and programmes to build a future-ready workforce. To do this, the analyst believes that companies must consciously manage employees’ dynamic skills. Otherwise, any approach to change through employees remains ad-hoc, tactical, and reactive.

‘That also means cooperation between all stakeholders, systematically determining what is needed in skills, knowledge, and an IT environment that facilitates dynamic change. Because you can’t take it for granted that you’ll just get those skills.

Your competitors are doing the same. If you and your existing employees aren’t able to respond quickly, you have a big problem.’

LAY YOUR CARDS OUT It is so important for an organization to know which people have which talents,

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skills, and capacity to change. Otherwise, how else could you determine where you need more time, money, and energy to work on your weaknesses and exploit your strengths, at a strategic and tactical level?

‘But also know your limitations as an organization,’ Mok emphasizes, ‘in IT, people – including your managers – and financing. This will allow you to set the right priorities. What can you do yourself?

What should you rely on external knowledge or skills for? Are there things you can automate, so you can free up employees for more value-added tasks? By having all these cards laid out in front of you, you as an organization can not only become more agile, but also be able to grow and accelerate in relation to your competition.’

SHORTAGE OF IT TALENT We are hearing more and more that a lack of IT talent is holding back organizations in shaping the digital transformation they need. Mok says that this gap has always been there, but now it’s more obvious.

Outsourcing, robotization, and automation are often referred to as a solution, but Mok sees another option.

‘One problem is that companies often restrict themselves to finding IT talent by rigidly sticking to a strict list of skills that people like developers, architects, data science and AI experts, and so on have to meet. ‘Not only do they miss out on a lot of IT talent that way, but also people who can quickly develop them into the IT experts they need.’

LOOKING BEYOND Mok recommends that CIOs and HR managers look beyond the ideal profile of IT staff, especially as competition for scarce talent in areas such as security and AI is growing. ‘You need to widen the pond that you’re fishing in. Determine what the musthave skills are; all the other skills that you can teach them can then be treated as potential skills.’

Make sure you also make it clear what you have to offer this scarce talent – why your IT department is unique – so you’re more attractive as an organization, Mok stresses.

‘This calls for a different approach to recruitment. Now is the time to decide how to set up that recruitment to pull in the right people for the future. For IT, but

LILY MOK

also for other departments.’

What’s more, sharing talent is an option that is becoming increasingly straightforward thanks to digitalization. ‘I’m seeing this happen more and more often during the pandemic: companies that share IT and other talent between themselves, or allow them to work for both, to make the most of the talent available.’

A COMBINATION Ultimately, it’s about combining things like understanding the talent available, continually training employees on the skills required, opening up your options to finding talent, and collaborating to get the most out the future-ready workforce that you need to create, Mok concludes.

‘Both in the IT department and throughout the organization. And that takes a team effort. IT cannot do it alone, nor can HR. To achieve a holistic approach at the organization level, you need to work together. It doesn’t necessarily have to be at strategic level, but you do need to collaborate in some form. That’s what I’d like to get across at the Gartner symposium in November: now is the right time more than ever to reach beyond and grow to that future-ready workforce.’

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Business Transformation Services

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