CIOs have faced criticism in the last year or so for not embracing social media, consumer IT and cloud platforms in their enterprises. Many experts — some quoted on Smart Enterprise Exchange, in fact — were quick to say that CIOs must adapt more rapidly to the demands of their business users, partners and consumers.

Well, that seems to be changing. While challenges remain, the days of the "CI-No" are waning, based on the results of a new research report published by IDC and CA Technologies.

The white paper, titled, “IT Consumers Transform the Enterprise: Are You Ready?” finds that: “Consumer adoption of the cloud is here, with cloud-based applications and social networking becoming the norm.” Specifically, 19 percent of those whom IDC defines as worldwide leaders are improving agility, gaining competitive advantage and seeing benefits by scaling up consumer technologies.

Follow the Leaders

IDC defines “leaders” as IT organizations that are self-reportedly proactive in their adoption of public cloud, mobile and social technologies. Fully two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents are well on their way to integrating these technologies into their IT strategy, according to the research. Where does that leave the CIO?

According to Crawford Del Prete, IDC's Chief Research Officer: "Today's CIOs have an opportunity to lead both business and IT innovation as they help their organizations decide how to best exploit the trend toward consumerization and personalization of IT."

Although 15 percent of respondents said that consumer technology is brought into the enterprise with no IT involvement, Del Prete sees opportunities for CIOs “to work closely with business decision makers to create safe, secure, well-managed environments that allow the company to communicate and collaborate with customers and employees anytime, anywhere.”

It’s still IT’s job to “lead the charge in order to ensure that customers are engaged, confidential data is protected, employee productivity is enabled, and the enterprise is getting the greatest return possible on every IT dollar it spends," he says.

The report concludes that we are currently at a “tipping point” where mainstream organizations will continue to aggressively embrace the adoption of consumerized technologies for the enterprise, and others must make their move.

Of course, the study notes both opportunities and challenges for IT departments and “CIOs will continue to face tremendous pressure to satisfy the growing demand for data and services from business users within their organizations”, said Dave Hansen, General Manager, CA Technologies. Yet, they are already responding by offering new services and collaborating with stakeholders, he said.

IDC surveyed 804 IT executives from organizations of more than $1 billion in revenue, and separately surveyed 1,040 IT consumers who use the public cloud, smart mobile devices, and/or social networks for personal or business purposes. Taken together, the reports shed light on the state of consumer-driven IT in several ways. Key among these:

• Leaders conduct more interactions with their customers via smart mobile devices (41% compared with 28% of mainstream organizations).
• Leaders are more proactive when it comes to social media. They are more likely to use social networks to capture detailed insights about their customers (44% compared with 24% of mainstream organizations) and are more concerned about providing a consistent user experience to customers via social networks across all devices or browsers.
• Leaders’ use of cloud services outpaces that of their mainstream counterparts. Thirty-four percent use Platform as a Service (PaaS), 32 percent use Software as a Service, and 27 percent use Infrastructure as a Service.
• Leaders’ use of interactive technologies such as video, Skype and chat is increasing.
• Leaders are more concerned about their ability to guarantee an end-to-end user experience via mobile devices (41%, compared with 27% of the mainstream organizations).
• Leaders use public or private cloud to provide remote personal productivity

Want more information? Read our feature article on collaborative tools and Navigating the Social Business. Interestingly, we found that many times IT and CIOs — even at large organizations such as AARP and JetBlue — are supporting social media strategies that are initiated and managed by other business units or social media “owners.”

Where does your business lie on this spectrum? Does IT lead social media or support the initiatives of business units and stakeholders? Share your experiences on the Exchange.

Paula Klein

Editor and Community Manager

Smart Enterprise Exchange

Years ago, before green described more than a Muppets frog or an envious feeling, I began following high-tech in the U.S., and along with most others I considered it a “clean” industry without major impact on air pollution and the surrounding environment.

What wasn’t really discussed or widely known — except perhaps among those who ran large glass-house data centers — was the huge amount of energy required to operate and to cool these centers, as well as the carbon emissions they produced.

Fast-forward to 2011 when we can no longer claim that IT is environmentally neutral — that is, unless or until businesses take steps immediately to offset the impact of our massive, global IT industry on air, water and natural resource consumption.

Fortunately, many enterprises are not only aware of the problems, they are taking action. And for those that need more nudging, many governments, as in Europe, have stiff regulations to persuade public and private organizations that they must reduce energy consumption as well as carbon emissions or face financial penalties.

To my mind, whether motives are purely about social responsibility (which I hope is an important factor) or whether they are financial and business-driven is less important than the actions taking place to make IT sustainability a rising priority, not just a nice afterthought. At the very least there needs to be a corporate policy with specific goals and a short-term timetable to reach them. And IT data centers must be a significant part of any initial remediation efforts.

Smart Enterprise Exchange recently discussed the topic of sustainability with experts at two global companies: Siemens IT Solutions and Services, in the U.K., and CA Technologies based in the U.S. It was encouraging to hear that each is “walking the talk” and addressing concerns as an IT user as well as a solutions provider to external customers. Part 1 of the audiocast is now available, and I've also highlighted here some comments from the full discussion with these panelists who make it seem very easy to be green:

• Clark MacFarlane, Siemens IT Solutions and Services’ Managing Director, U.K., and CEO for North West Europe, framed the situation well when he said that IT sustainability should be one essential part of a “larger, organizational drive.” In the U.K., public and private sectors must “live the principle” and meet “demanding targets set to reduce carbon and energy efficiency usage. “Under current U.K. environmental legislation, it isn’t an option; it’s an obligation,” he said. Siemens, therefore, has a responsibility to the environment as well as to its customers and employees to conserve energy.
  
  
• Specifically, Steven Barker, Siemens IT Solutions and Services’ Head of Government Affairs, U.K., said hard ROI will be realized when you are compliant with legislation. “Everyone understands that there are reputational risks if you don’t comply.” More positively, “any sustainability activity can have a payback and it should be embedded in a business case so there is no conflict between business and sustainability objectives.” The challenge, he said, is to get clarity, and prioritize all of the efforts under way.
  
  
• MacFarlane said Siemens had set targets to reduce its CO2 impact and water efficiency by 20 percent – and between 2006 and 2009, CO2 emissions had improved by 17 percent and water usage by 29 percent. In addition, some 62 percent of its waste was now being recycled. Based on its own achievement of reducing the number of data centers – down from 100 to 30 in Germany, for example – the company helps customers with data center virtualization and consolidation, lean processes and even travel costs by encouraging more videoconferencing and public transportation.
  
  
• CA Technologies also practices what it preaches to customers, according to Chief Sustainability Officer Cynthia Curtis. “We use much of our own technology to monitor and improve energy consumption,” she said. The tough economy makes it even more critical to invest and prioritize in green efforts that “drive bottom-line savings.” In addition to virtualization, the cloud is enabling better productivity and cost savings for CA and its customers. Similarly, better metering of data centers can cut down on air conditioning to improve the environment as well as the bottom line.
  
  
• Like Siemens, CA Technologies has designed buildings and data centers to comply with rigorous environmental standards. Sanket Atal, Senior Vice President of the CA Technologies India Technology Center in Hyderabad, noted that his campus considered “eco-friendliness since day one.” It recycles waste water, composts food and other materials, and used energy-efficient materials for its design. As a result, the site has earned LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] certification and a gold award for green design.

Are these companies unusual in their commitment to the environment? I’d like to hear more from our members before I can feel confident that the IT industry — particularly in the U.S., where regulations are lax — is really serious about improving the environment and reversing global warming trends. Some recent research is not encouraging. What is your IT department doing to become greener? Are you measuring tangible results? Please share your practices with others on the Exchange.