Although more business leaders appear to be garnering a stronger understanding of IT management on both micro and macro scales as the years progress, some experts remain concerned about the ability of companies to get the most out of their technological investments. Considering how much money is pouring into IT-related products, services and assets, it only makes sense that decision-makers should be honing their management, oversight and optimization skills as much as possible as time goes on. 

One would be hard-pressed to identify a technology that has not changed and evolved significantly in the past few years, with even some of the more rudimentary automation tools transforming with the passing of each year. As the demands and management requirements of these tools change alongside the specifications of their capabilities, it is important to keep pace with the progression of innovation to get more out of IT assets and drive long-term return on investment. 

There are no signs of technology's rapid innovation beginning to slow any time soon, and those firms that maintain an aggressive and persistent approach to growing with these tools will likely have the most to gain with respect to financial potential in the midst of the economic recovery. On the flip side, those that begin to have cement feet and do not progress alongside the evolution of technology might find themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage before long. 

Automation tools are among the most popularly provisioned today, and this will likely continue to be the case for years to come, while the ways in which companies handle IT on the broad scale will dictate the return on investment they can expect from each deployment. Regardless of which assets and services a business has in its workplace, the rules of engagement with respect to IT management are becoming a bit more standardized as time goes on. 

The path forward
International Data Corporation recently released its latest MaturityScape Benchmark: IT Strategy and Innovation in the United States, which raised several concerns about corporate decision-makers' abilities to govern next-generation technology and how they can become a bit better in this regard. According to the analysts, the real problem is currently rooted within 3rd Platform technologies, which are characterized as those that have been made available within the past five years or so, including big data. 

Because of how quickly innovation has sped up in the past few years, many companies have been reeling, not capable of tackling new trends and emerging solutions in stride, then falling behind the pack. The researchers affirmed that decision-makers can begin to ease the more troubling aspects of these problems through a four-point path toward maturity, which begins with leadership becoming a bit more innovative, visionary and aware in their own right. 

Outside of that, IDC stressed the importance of change management and financial management, with businesses establishing policies and strategies that will yield more fluid responsiveness to market fluctuations and guide provisioning-related decisions in the right direction. Finally, planning represented the fourth component, with the analysts suggesting that architecture, roles and structure, process and methodology must all be ironed out for optimal governance of IT in the modern era. 

"IDC believes that business leaders are struggling to adapt their strategies at the speed of change that the 3rd Platform is imposing on them," IDC Research Network Adjunct Researcher Fred Magee explained. "Additionally, because so much of the 3rd Platform relies on adopting emerging technologies effectively, there is an added emphasis on the CIO's ability to deliver innovative IT solutions that support and, in some cases, anticipate enterprise strategic goals. Strategy and innovation requires long-term guidance and commitment to building strategic skills in order to stay ahead of the business-need curve. A clear plan for strategy and innovation will be essential for CIOs and other IT executives."

Building on wins
Many companies have been deploying new technologies at a breathtaking speed, and have likely had at least a few implementation procedures go on without a hitch. Rather than focusing on the shortfalls and failures of the past, business leaders should look to build off of successes to get their employees – as well as themselves – into a more confident position that allows them to face emerging trends a bit more fluidly. 

With respect to automation technology, those tools and solutions that are thus far popular among businesses will likely go through their own progressive innovation stages of maturity, and working to incrementally adjust management strategies in accordance with these shifts will often save companies a wealth of time and resources. The 3rd Platform as IDC defines it is becoming more prevalent across technological markets, and leaders must strive to not fall too far behind the pack when it comes to management and governance overhauls for these tools.