Three thousand IT executives have gathered in Cannes this
week for the Gartner Symposium to discuss key business issues
ranging from outsourcing, security and business intelligence to the
growing importance of consumer power when planning corporate IT
strategies.
The theme of the opening keynote at the analyst group's conference
is the future of software and how it can help businesses be more
agile in the face of uncertainty.
"Service-oriented architectures are a major part of the future of
software," Gartner vice-president Roger Fulton told Computer
Weekly.
A service-orientated architecture is a concept of how IT
architectures can be delivered as a set of independent services
sharing information through web services technology.
Some organisations have the opportunity to start from scratch,
creating a service-oriented architecture without the problem of
integrating legacy systems. Most organisations do not have this
luxury and will be looking to wrap a service-oriented architecture
around their existing software.
"It could take quite a while before companies re-engineer their
systems completely to focus on agility," said Fulton.
Legacy software is not the biggest problem facing IT departments,
he added. "We found that the biggest inhibitors to change were in
the business culture and in changing the IT itself. The perception
from the business is that they are really being held back by IT.
Many operations have reached a level of complexity that is stifling
- not just for IT but for the businesses they support."
Gartner will also discuss the growing influence the consumer has on
IT, particularly through the web, and how companies must respond.
"The power of the consumer is starting to drive businesses. In the
past a large corporation set the pace but we are now seeing the
consumer's influence. It is a massive switch that has happened over
the years and we are just past the inflexion point," said Fulton.
The Gartner vice-president urged IT directors to get ready for an
upturn in IT spending. The growth may be modest, but he warned,
"When someone says go, you must be ready. When getting ready for
the upturn, you have got to influence your business colleagues much
more effectively that in the past.
"The CIO is tasked with how we make IT governance work within the
business so it makes the right decision."