Outlook Special Edition, May 2004
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Over the past few years, leaders have looked to innovation as a way to grow their companies out of the global downturn. Now that we see economic recovery in many parts of the world, innovation—especially in information technology—is becoming even more critical to growth and high performance.
Clearly, IT is essential in an environment where demand for information is at an all-time high and where time is in short supply. And even though information is extraordinarily abundant, I have yet to meet a business executive who has all the information he or she actually needs or receives it in a timely manner. It seems that leaders today face a dual challenge: getting the right I in IT, amidst an avalanche of data; and knowing how to unleash the T to create value for our enterprises.
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Sitting at the intersection of business and technology, Accenture has had a unique view of the shift in IT pri-orities. While CEOs and senior executives must always be mindful of simplifying, securing and rationalizing IT, we also find ourselves racing to seize competitive advantage and increased productivity through IT-driven innovations.
The exciting news, from Accenture's perspective, is that we believe the world is at the dawn of the next wave of technology innovations. We envision a convergence of web services, RFID, mobility, wireless and insight technologies—all coming together to take real-time decision making to powerful new levels, and transforming modern life as we know it. In practice, this means high-performance organizations will grow revenue by embedding technology in everyday products that enable a wide range of services—from maintenance services for cars, to status services for supply chains, to intelligent communications for the remote monitoring of heart implant devices, to name just a few examples.
Interestingly, as this wave of change breaks over business, we see a growing gap between the rate of technology innovation and people's understanding of—and ability to use—these new innovations to improve their business performance. This Outlook Special Edition explores the relationship between high performance and IT, and presents a three-step approach to getting the most value from technology innovations. The authors focus specifically on four interconnected facets that create business value: infrastructure, integration, industrialization and innovation. By working simultaneously to master these areas, organizations will be able to deploy information technology most effectively to deliver innovations and realize their fullest potential.
As leaders, we must continue to satisfy today's demands for cost-effective, secure IT while also sharpening our view of technology innovation to enable high performance and future success. I hope this reading provides some relevant insights for striking this balance, as well as inspiration for the exciting journey ahead.
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