COMMENT
They will be expected to own, respond to, and resolve the
waves of new and unanticipated demands, considerations
and issues that the IOT will generate on a daily basis.
CIOs need to decide today what additional capabilities and
resources they need as they cultivate the enterprise’s IOT
efforts, both in the short and long term, and start acquiring
them without delay.
Develop an IOT war room
Operating in an IOT world requires planning for the best
outcomes, but also preparing for the worst. Central to this,
CIOs leading IOT adoption should create a virtual ‘IOT war
room’ to focus attention on the unfolding future.
The war room consists of a team of business and technology
minds to brainstorm the situation and create an enterprise
IOT strategy and roadmap to guide the CEO, C-level peers
and technology teams towards a vision of how the enterprise
wants to participate in the IOT world.
The strategy will provide a ‘constitution’ with aspirations
and guiding principles. The roadmap must be lightweight,
flexible, options-based, and designed to be as dynamic as the
IOT itself. It will inevitably change direction frequently, and
priorities will shift as IOT technologies and products evolve,
markets and players come and go, and customers decide how
connected they wish to be.
Map and monitor critical IOT domains
IOT-generated data will never be finite, stable or complete. So
creating and maintaining an accurate map of the enterprise’s
critical IOT domains and connected endpoints needs to be
done from the outset. A visual dashboard or monitoring
system with a real-time view of the continual flow and growth
of IOT involvement can help with this.
T
echnologists are, at heart, today’s explorers and
inventors venturing into wild digital frontiers. As
the Internet of Things (IOT) evolves, IT leaders are
discovering that it is not an endgame but a beginning: The
IOT is a launch pad for infinite new forms of digital business
and social connection.
The IOT will expand rapidly and extensively, continually
surfacing novel and unforeseen opportunities and threats.
This calls for a new type of CIO, a ‘CIO of Everything’ who can
radically adapt the vision, decision making, and capabilities to
orchestrate an IOT world.
Enterprises will approach the IOT from different angles -
perhaps as consumers of data, or as passive contributors of
data, or as active IOT ecosystem leaders bringing new product
and intelligence to market. Whatever the point of entry, the
ability to act with speed, imagination and confidence are the
qualities required of the CIO of Everything.
www.intelligentcio.com
Build a dedicated IOT team for the enterprise
A dedicated IOT team needs to be skilled in designing,
mapping, reading, growing and maintaining the enterprise’s
IOT internal domains and external products.
The CIO will need a curious, entrepreneurial and strategic-
thinking IOT-focused team able to work with abstraction
and unprecedented levels of complexity, and to anticipate
opportunities and threats quickly as industry, market
conditions and technologies change.
Brainstorming sessions will be needed with IT leaders and
forward-thinking business leaders and product owners to
develop a profile of the talent and competencies needed to
form and develop this new pivotal team.
Jenny Beresford is Research Director at Gartner, the partner for
more than 11,000 enterprises in 100 countries worldwide. n
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