CIO

Preparing for the digital economy? Think bi-modal, says Gartner

‘The key challenge is to reinvent applications strategies to align with the new digital reality, while supporting the innovation businesses will need to remain competitive.’

The digital world is forcing organisations to evolve and change at a much faster rate than ever before. If an organisation is moving at a certain pace or level, the IT organisation has to match that rhythm, says Brian Prentice, research vice president at Gartner.

The application development teams are particularly impacted by the rise of digital business and the rapid pace of IT, he points out.

The key challenge for today’s applications professional is to reinvent applications strategies to align with this new digital reality, while at the same time supporting the innovation businesses will need to remain competitive, he states.

Bi-modal-IT, DevOps and cloud/mobile app development are all necessary ingredients for a modern application development practice.

Brian Prentice, Gartner

“Organisations will need to figure out how to coordinate all of these different touch points into something meaningful, which has a tremendous impact on application development.”

Prentice says just adding features and functions to applications, whether for employees or customers, is not enough in the current environment.

The market is starting to shift towards a much bigger focus on user experience design, he states.

“It is a huge challenge for application development teams, largely because they have designed their operations and expertise on how you can get extra functionality into products, not necessarily how you get people to have an enjoyable experience using it.”

Related: CIO Upfront: The User Experience guru

Prentice stresses the need to apply bi-modal IT. This means having traditional infrastructure initiatives side by side with new capabilities and approaches in place to enable rapid, agile, digital-age innovation.

Bi-modal-IT, DevOps and cloud/mobile app development are all necessary ingredients for a modern application development practice, he states.

“Tools and methodologies must also evolve, including agile techniques and rapid development tools. It’s not just about delivering business functionality; it’s about user experience. Without a compelling user experience, the game is lost.”

“We are quickly getting to the point where IT isn’t just a part of the business – it is the business. Application leaders must be ready to step up to that challenge and seize the opportunity to help lead their organisations into the age of digital business,” he concludes.

Related: The CIO’s bi-modal innovation agenda.

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