In an interview with Computerworld Philippines, Touchpaper chief executive officer Graham Ridgway cited a 2006 study by Gartner which says that the priorities of CIOs are shifting. 'In 2004, we saw CIOs prioritize saving the company money and consolidating -- doing more with less. In 2005, focus moved to delivering projects that enable business growth. Today, what's molding the IT department are business goals -- understanding how the business works and translating that into IT projects,' he said.
The CEO noted, however, that a common challenge among IT departments is establishing a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) -- a set of goals and challenges, 'CIOs aren't able to use enough KPIs to justify what they do.' This was why the ITBM Maturity Model was developed, he said. Citing a Touchpaper study of 100 CIOs in U.K., Ridgway shared that only 40 percent of U.K. enterprises currently measure IT's contribution to business success with KPIs. The survey concluded that organizations today are still failing to set formal and measurable goals, which severely impacts their ability to optimize their IT infrastructure.
'It seems a complete no-brainer to bring IT service delivery in line with business goals. However, most organizations are simply overwhelmed by the very idea,' said Ridgway. According to Ridgway, the ITBM Maturity Model is a methodology that would help customers not only gain better understanding of their current challenges and how to solve them, but also to set measurable business goals at every step of the IT-business alignment process.
'If you get it right, IT drives the business forward,' Ridgway said.
Stronger market presence
According to the Touchpaper CEO, the company's general strategy for South East Asia is to build a network of highly-skilled solution providers who can deliver Touchpaper quality solutions, services, and after-sales support to their customers.
The company has a very small local presence in the Philippines right now -- with around 5 people, but the country will see more of Touchpaper this year as it will become more aggressive in marketing. 'We are also currently looking at the Philippines for Touchpaper to put more of its operations,' said the CEO. Although plans are not yet final, Ridgway said the company will most likely put up bigger local operations in the next 6 to 12 months.
Targeting mostly the mid-sized to large enterprises (organizations with more than 500 employees), Touchpaper is expecting to double its revenues in the country this year. Ridgway described the Philippines as a 'very exciting market' citing the 'high-tech thing going on in the BPO business.'
Admitting that the local market still needs education about ITBM and what it can do for their business, Ridgway is optimistic that, with enough education, local enterprises will see the need for ITBM.
'With the Philippines, there's a time lag (compared to other countries) in maturity and commonality of terminology, but the issues are the same. It's a thing that businesses have to face,' he added.