Al-Noor Ramji, CIO at BT Group PLC in London, is likewise reinventing how the telecommunications vendor manages its IT operations in an effort to make his 15,000-member team more agile and responsive to customers.

Ramji, who joined BT 18 months ago, said he has cut the number of in-house IT initiatives from about 4,300 individual projects to 29 development programs that are reviewed quarterly with corporate executives.

"Really, you've got to show some business value every 90 days," he said, noting that unsuccessful projects lose their funding.

The new approach, which took effect at the start of last year, also includes a process in which six to nine technical teams develop prototypes for a customer, which picks the winning design. Members of the winning teams get bonuses that are equal to 10 percent of their quarterly salaries, as do members of project teams that meet their 90-day goals, Ramji said.

The makeover puts "huge peer-group pressure" on IT workers, Ramji noted. But it has helped IT move "from what I call 'cleaning the toilets' -- just keeping the systems running -- to where we're core to the business," he said.