http://www.ableandhow.com/blog/change/how-the-consulting-market-has-changed Communication, organisational communication, change management and people. And some other things... Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:33:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.ableandhow.com/blog/change/how-the-consulting-market-has-changed/comment-page-1#comment-3958 Chris Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:44:43 +0000 http://www.ableandhow.com/blog/?p=1209#comment-3958 It appears to be a broad phenomenon. I was recently talking to a senior exec at a software company who referred to the trend as the "operational efficiency cycle" in IT which he suggested correlates strongly to the general business cycle. He suggested that expenditure decisions throughout the entire business are being evaluated with a much stronger emphasis on short-term return and minimised risk. In IT this means operational efficiency projects are taking precedence again over the less tangible strategic capability projects. Planning and return horizons now extend not much beyond the far edge of the CIO’s desk. Businesses are investing in IT projects that can measurably improve productivity almost immediately - not the longer-term, riskier “strategic” projects of the pre-recessionary period. The good news for IT though is that generally budgets have remained stable – just the emphasis has significantly changed. It appears to be a broad phenomenon. I was recently talking to a senior exec at a software company who referred to the trend as the “operational efficiency cycle” in IT which he suggested correlates strongly to the general business cycle. He suggested that expenditure decisions throughout the entire business are being evaluated with a much stronger emphasis on short-term return and minimised risk. In IT this means operational efficiency projects are taking precedence again over the less tangible strategic capability projects. Planning and return horizons now extend not much beyond the far edge of the CIO’s desk. Businesses are investing in IT projects that can measurably improve productivity almost immediately – not the longer-term, riskier “strategic” projects of the pre-recessionary period. The good news for IT though is that generally budgets have remained stable – just the emphasis has significantly changed.

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