Seemingly it’s the old, old problem of how to have your cake and eat it. CIOs are being asked to ensure that IT is continuing to function efficiently, to comply with legislation and regulation, and to be secure against an ever-wider range of threats. They’re also expected to perform the usual upgrades, renewals and maintenance on legacy infrastructures, and to ‘manage’ (as in maintain or reduce) IT budgets.

But as if doing all of this were not enough, IT is now required to ‘innovate’ to support businesses that are being fundamentally re-engineered for the new economy. All of which has far reaching effects on IT infrastructures, budgets and goals.

It’s important to understand that while the importance of innovation and the inevitability of change has become the mantra of the elite ranks of businessmen worldwide, this is not a fad. In the 90s businesses became adept at sales and marketing, branding, rebranding and growth through merger and acquisition. With the support of the Internet, businesses opened up new global markets and the barriers to setting up a business lowered. This provided a host of new opportunities, but it also introduced a range of new threats – not least that increased numbers of competitors made differentiation harder and premiums for particular products and services more difficult to maintain.

Today, each innovation is scrutinised, copied and the advantage negated that much quicker - thanks to the power of the Internet-supported global market. GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, for example, explains that now “constant re-invention is the central necessity…we’re all just a moment away from commodity hell”. The ability to respond to change, to continually innovate and to get product to market quickly and reliably are the new hallmarks of business success. Or, in Rupert Murdoch’s words: “big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”

IT is a central player in a business’s search for both innovation and differentiation. Its critical role in supporting an organisation’s innovation fitness was underlined in a recent survey conducted by Capgemini Consulting[1]. The survey revealed that two-thirds of CIOs believe that IT is critical to business innovation, but only 25% feel their IT function is actually driving business innovation. Capgemini’s Eric Monnoyer, BIS Global Leader, comments that the requirement to balance operation and innovation is “a constant challenge” for CIOs, although the survey indicates that 60% of CIOs believe it’s possible to do both.