- The CIO is not considered a strategic partner. The business may be satisfied with IT services, but no one is looking to IT to solve business problems or drive the enterprise forward.
- Even if IT staff do generate ideas that will improve operational efficiency or enable the business, few are ever assessed or executed upon.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Business demand for new technology is creating added pressure to innovate and executive stakeholders expect more from IT. If IT is not viewed as a source of innovation, its perceived value will decrease and the threat of shadow IT will grow. Do not wait to start finding and capitalizing on opportunities for IT-led innovation.
Impact and Result
- Start innovating right away. All you need are business pains and people willing to ideate around them.
- Assemble a small team and arm them with proven techniques for identifying unique opportunities for innovation, developing impactful solutions, and prototyping quickly and effectively. Incubate a reservoir of ideas, both big and small, so that you are ready to execute on innovative projects when the timing is right.
- Once you have demonstrated IT’s ability to innovate, mature your capability with a permanent innovation process and program.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
9.2/10
Overall Impact
$38,844
Average $ Saved
8
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Point32Health
Guided Implementation
7/10
$113K
18
Grand Valley State University
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
United HealthCare Services, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
$12,599
5
Digital Armour Corporation
Guided Implementation
10/10
$16,379
4
Grain Craft
Guided Implementation
9/10
$12,999
5
City Of Chesapeake
Guided Implementation
10/10
$6,150
5
Seven Seventeen Credit Union, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
$35,041
20
MCAP Service Corporation
Guided Implementation
10/10
$4,000
5
MCAP Service Corporation
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Agriculture Financial Services Corporation
Workshop
9/10
$100K
115
AltaGas Ltd.
Guided Implementation
10/10
$25,000
20
Dallas Area Rapid Transit
Guided Implementation
9/10
$29,923
10
Canadian Institutes of Health
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
MCAP Service Corporation
Guided Implementation
10/10
$6,000
5
City of Kelowna
Guided Implementation
8/10
$10,000
10
Mohegan Tribe Of Indians Of Connecticut
Workshop
10/10
N/A
120
Chartwell Retirement
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
2
Ontario Provincial Sector ? Land and Resources
Guided Implementation
9/10
$1,000
2
City Of Regina, The
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
Innovation
Innovate now - formalize later! This course makes up part of the Strategy & Governance Certificate.
- Course Modules: 5
- Estimated Completion Time: 2-2.5 hours
- Featured Analysts:
- David Glazer, Research Manager, CIO Practice
- James Alexander, SVP of Research and Advisory, CIO Practice
Workshop: Kick-Start IT-Led Business Innovation
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Launch Innovation
The Purpose
- Introduce innovation.
- Assess overall IT maturity to understand what you want to achieve with innovation.
- Define the innovation mandate.
- Introduce ideation.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A set of shared objectives for innovation will be defined.
- A mandate will be created to help focus innovation efforts on what is most critical to the advancement of IT's maturity.
- The group will be introduced to ideation and prepared to begin addressing critical IT or business pains.
Activities
Outputs
Define workshop goals and objectives.
- Workshop goals and objectives.
Introduce innovation.
- An understanding of innovation.
Assess IT maturity.
- IT maturity assessment.
Define the innovation mandate.
- Sponsored innovation mandate.
Introduce ideation.
- An understanding of ideation.
Module 2: Ideate, Part I
The Purpose
- Identify and prioritize opportunities for IT-led innovation.
- Map critical processes to identify the pains that should be ideated around.
- Brainstorm potential solutions.
- Assess, pitch, and prioritize ideas that should be investigated further.
Key Benefits Achieved
- The team will learn best practices for ideation.
- Critical pain points that might be addressed through innovation will be identified and well understood.
- A number of ideas will be generated that can solve identified pains and potentially feed the project pipeline.
- The team will prioritize the ideas that should be investigated further and prototyped after the workshop.
Activities
Outputs
Identify processes that present opportunities for IT-led innovation.
- A list of processes with high opportunity for IT-enablement.
Map selected processes.
- Detailed process maps that highlight pain points and stakeholder needs.
Finalize problem statements.
- Problem statements to ideate around.
Generate ideas.
- A long list of ideas to address pain points.
Assess ideas.
- Detailed idea documents.
Pitch and prioritize ideas.
- A shortlist of prioritized ideas to investigate further.
Module 3: Ideate, Part II
The Purpose
- Ideate around a more complex problem that presents opportunity for IT-led innovation.
- Map the associated process to define pain points and stakeholder needs in detail.
- Brainstorm potential solutions.
- Assess, pitch, and prioritize ideas that should be investigated further.
- Introduce prototyping.
- Map the user journey for prioritized ideas.
Key Benefits Achieved
- The team will be ready to facilitate ideation independently with other staff after the workshop.
- A critical problem that might be addressed through innovation will be defined and well understood.
- A number of innovative ideas will be generated that can solve this problem and help IT position itself as a source of innovative projects.
- Ideas will be assessed and prioritized for further investigation and prototyping after the workshop.
- The team will learn best practices for prototyping.
- The team will identify the assumptions that need to be tested when top ideas are prototyped.
Activities
Outputs
Select an urgent opportunity for IT-led innovation.
- Selection of a process which presents a critical opportunity for IT-enablement.
Map the associated process.
- Detailed process map that highlights pain points and stakeholder needs.
Finalize the problem statement.
- Problem statement to ideate around.
Generate ideas.
- A long list of ideas to solve the problem.
Assess ideas.
- Detailed idea documents.
Pitch and prioritize ideas.
- A shortlist of prioritized ideas to investigate further.
Introduce prototyping.
- An understanding of effective prototyping techniques.
Map the user journey for top ideas.
- A user journey for at least one of the top ideas.
Module 4: Implement an Innovation Process and Program
The Purpose
- Establish a process for generating, managing, prototyping, prioritizing, and approving new ideas.
- Create an action plan to operationalize your new process.
- Develop a program to help support the innovation process and nurture your innovators.
- Create an action plan to implement your innovation program.
- Decide how innovation success will be measured.
Key Benefits Achieved
- The team will learn best practices for managing innovation.
- The team will be ready to operationalize an effective process for IT-led innovation. You can start scheduling ideation sessions as soon as the workshop is complete.
- The team will understand the current innovation ecosystem: drivers, barriers, and enablers.
- The team will be ready to roll out an innovation program that will help generate wider engagement with IT-led innovation.
- You will be ready to measure and report on the success of your program.
Activities
Outputs
Design an IT-led innovation process.
- A process for IT-led innovation.
Assign roles and responsibilities.
- Defined process roles and responsibilities.
Generate an action plan to roll out the process.
- An action plan for operationalizing the process.
Determine critical process metrics to track.
- Critical process metrics to measure success.
Identify innovation drivers, enablers, and barriers.
- A list of innovation drivers, enablers, and barriers.
Develop a program to nurture a culture of innovation.
- A program for innovation that will leverage enablers and minimize barriers.
Create an action plan to jumpstart each of your program components.
- An action plan to roll out your innovation program.
Determine critical metrics to track.
- Critical program metrics to track.
Summarize findings and gather feedback.
- Overview of workshop results and feedback.