Emerging Technologies Alter The Approach To Enterprise Strategies...
The proliferation of and access to emerging technologies by the business user challenges organizations to rethink their enterprise technology strategy.  Consumer technologies have proven to be not only more innovative and collaborative, but also quite accessible and equally reliable when compared to existing enterprise tools.  The result - IT departments no longer reign supreme in determining technology strategy and adoption.  In fact, business leaders and individuals increasingly play a greater, if not decisive, role in driving the selection and cultural adoption of technology.  Consequently, enterprise strategies must be crafted to manage disparate systems, technologies, and deployment options across the organization.
... But The Rate of Technology Obsolescence Outpaces The Pace Of Technology Adoption
Organizations face massive levels of change across challenging macro-economic conditions, emerging workplace dynamics, new business models, and slow pace of technology adoption.  Unfortunately, they must respond to these changes while being saddled with the burdens of last century's technology.  Without actionable application strategies in the transition to social enterprise apps, many organizations face obsolescence.  How do we get from where we are today to where we want to be?
Enterprise Strategies Must Begin With The End In Mind
To take a Coveyism, its important to define the objectives before you begin.  As the enterprise strategist at Altimeter I'll be assisting our clients with:

• Adopting technology strategies driven by business need;
• Building dynamic user experiences;
• Crafting strategies to transform business processes;
• Delivering a connected community; and
• Eliminating burdensome cost structures to fund innovation

These advisory projects will include but not be limited to:

• Technology strategy reviews
• Vendor selection
• Independent verification and validation (IV&V)
• Vendor management strategies

Succeed With A Holistic Approach Beyond Just Enterprise Strategy
As I assist our clients with these enterprise strategies, its important to think of these in the context of a holistic approach (see Figure 1).  Your organization's overall strategy should also address the challenges and success strategies in leadership, customer, and innovation required for success.  I'll be joined by 3 other partners including our founding partner, Charlene Li, who will focus on the culture and structures required to guide these emerging technologies in the organization.  Deb Schultz, a pioneer in bringing innovation concepts to life, will be leading our labs program at "The Hangar". Meanwhile, my former Forrester colleague, Jeremiah Owyang will be focusing on customer strategy of emerging technologies.

Figure 1. Altimeter Group's Four Practice Areas

Join The Altimeter Open House Webinar On The Future of Business
Find out more about how the Altimeter Group can serve as your resource at our upcoming Open House Webinar.  Details below:
Date:                           Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Time:                          10 am Pacific Time (GMT - 8:00)
Registration link:     https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/725944010

Related blog posts:

• Charlene Li
• Jeremiah Owyang
• Deb Schultz
  

Your POV
What are your top concerns about your enterprise strategy?  Will you have the tools to get from today's enterprise technologies to an emerging world of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 business solutions.  Let us know what you think.  Post your comment here or reach me direct at r at altimetergroup dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.