1):BDO 2019 Mid-Market Transformation Survey
2):CX Excellence in Growing Mid-Size Companies: Challenges and Path to Success, November 2018
Getting stuck in maintenance mode
If your IT team doesn’t have the bandwidth for anything except the maintenance of the digital products or systems you already have, finding time to innovate can seem like a pipe dream.
Tight budgets and the accumulation of technical debt are some of the more common reasons companies find themselves in this predicament, but they aren’t the only reasons. Some companies actually become victims of their own success by building digital products that need to scale so fast, it takes most of their IT muscle just to keep them stable and performing.
Then there is the issue of getting everyone in an organization headed in the same direction when it comes to innovation. Maybe the corporate culture dictates that a product’s features should be customized for its best customers, but are those legacy customers or the customers of tomorrow? Unless there is a unified vision for who the target is, no IT team will be able to move forward and innovate.
Most CTOs want to get out of maintenance mode so they can be drivers of innovation and not just systems managers. By defining, then driving innovation, the role of CTO becomes essential to an organization’s future.
This is where an outside resource like a development partner can be invaluable. They have the expertise to assess your IT organization from a 10,000-ft perspective, identify the pain points, and help you build a plan that moves your business forward.