According to Gartner, approximately 45 percent of organizations have bimodal IT capabilities currently, and by 2017, 75 percent of IT organizations will have this capability. However, perhaps most noteworthy is that of that 75 percent, half will make a mess of bimodal.
Bimodal IT, as the name implies, refers to two modes of IT. The first is the traditional, systematic approach to IT, placing security, scalability, efficiency and accuracy at the forefront. The second encompasses speed and agility. The IT industry as a whole is currently undergoing a digital transformation, and so, the ability to be fast and agile is critical to an organization remaining competitive in the marketplace. Similar to the discussion around citizen integration, those businesses that do not adapt will quickly be left behind.
As gatekeepers to an organization’s IT policies and protocols, CIOs are at the helm of this digital transformation and should consider a few key points in order to master the bimodal approach.
The digital revolution is not solely affecting IT organizations. Business as usual across the entire organization has been upended by the rapid proliferation of cloud, mobile and social technologies in the enterprise. As a result, business users are taking an increasing amount of tasks that have traditionally fallen under the umbrella of IT into their own hands and the pace at which business is conducted has rapidly increased. As such, it’s crucial that the bimodal approach is embraced in context of the entire organization.
Given the all-encompassing nature of this transformation in the way business is conducted, the bimodal approach isn’t just “nice to have,” but is in fact critical for organizations to implement. The ability to quickly respond to the ever-evolving business landscape is necessary for organizations to survive this digital transformation.
Most importantly, CIOs must act now to embrace bimodal. Without the proper support from IT, internal shadow IT will begin to fill the void, creating a mess that requires a substantial amount of time and resources for IT to clean up. The digital transformation will only continue to increase the pace at which business is conducted, and as such, those that don’t adapt will be left behind.