IT transformation is off the table in a recession, CIOs say

How much pressure are CIOs feeling to deliver the proverbial more with less? At a lunch yesterday of IT and business executives in Madison, Wis., the strain was palpable. So was a creeping weariness with the do-more-with-less strategy that’s been the boast of every hotshot CIO since IT’s own economic Armageddon of 2001-2003. It’s one thing, it seems, to do more with less when there’s money in the banks, or drive IT transformation when business goals aren’t a moving target.

“Why are people at my door asking for more work, when I have less dollars to do it?” asked David Cagigal, CIO for Alliant Energy Corp. “Some of the customers just don’t get it.”

The lunch was an invitation-only precursor to the Fusion 2009 CEO-CIO Symposium put on by the Wisconsin Technology Network. Cagigal was responding to the lunchtime talk given by Ajei Gopal, executive VP for CA Inc.’s products and technology group. Gopal gave a progress report on his company’s reorganization since the scandal-ridden days before former chairman and CEO Sanjay Kumar went to jail for improprieties related to his job, and to deliver the message that now is the time for bold action. While it may be seductive to stop spending, CIOs should be investing in long-term strategies that break down information technology silos and weave IT into every aspect of the business so that CIOs see what they need to see and respond appropriately to provide the business with (ready for the next proverbial?) end-to-end IT services.

In CA’s case, the internal strategy is not so much on gee-whiz technology, he said, but in tying technology together in innovative and novel ways to serve the customer. Moreover, Gopal predicted that in the vendor world, the integrators — not the point-solution companies — will prevail when the upturn comes because customers, too, will be looking for end-to-end solutions. (Unless, Gopal, they don’t work.)

The spiel was met with some pushback. Alliant’s Cagigal pointed out that CA was ahead of the curve, fortunate to have reinvested in its technology strategy before the crash. How do you convey the need to optimize the business now?

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