Blogs

Customers expect a lot from companies in the digital age. Ideally, all of a firm’s offerings solve relevant problems in a seamlessly connected way, while being geared to customers’ individual and differing needs and providing great experiences. Fulfilling these expectations puts huge requirements on companies’ IT systems in terms of integration and flexibility. However, most […]

Increased automation is key to competitiveness in the digital economy. But automation requires articulating clear business rules and embedding them into systems. Once there, those business rules more or less run our businesses. They take or guide actions ranging from pricing products and services to ordering parts and supplies to defining partner relationships. Before companies […]

As the hype around big data begins to quiet down, more companies are focusing on how they can transform that data into insights and actions that lead to real business benefits. After all, what’s the point of a data initiative if it doesn’t add value? We’re now seeing a race to achieve data-based business objectives, […]

For years, we’ve been talking about achieving business value from IT. Now it’s time for a change in language and attitude. Instead of referring to “IT and the business,” let’s talk about “IT and other parts of the business.” Why? It boils down to three reasons: The digital economy is already here We are in […]

A lot of companies start out offering a single product or service. This keeps things pretty straightforward. After all, you can’t get any simpler than being a one-product company. However, complexity increases as businesses grow. ING Direct Spain is a good example. In 1999, it began with one savings product. But by 2012 it offered […]

Who is leading the world in terms of digitization? Surprisingly, it’s not developed countries. In 2012, we saw a significant flip, with emerging economies now at the front of the pack. Companies in those economies are spending more on digitization, are outperforming, and are faster to market with new offerings than businesses in developed countries. […]

Shadow IT keeps many CIOs awake at night. For years, they’ve been worried about how to rein in renegades. But some CIOs are starting to think differently. They look at what we’ve called shadow IT as just one of many IT resources they orchestrate to address business demands. Adopting a new attitude toward shadow IT […]

Organizations are relying more and more on big data, but what does it mean to be good at this? What are the best practices when it comes to driving value? For answers, we looked at comScore, which has been amassing, analyzing, and selling data for fourteen years. To be sustainable, its data not only has […]

In the digital age, we think that architecture matters even more for the long-term success of organizations. However, when we hear about architecting, it’s often related to IT. The term isn’t very common on the non-IT side of the business, yet architecture impacts the entire company. At MIT CISR, we’ve launched a research project, “Making […]

Jeanne Ross delivered the following tribute to Jack Rockart at a memorial service on March 1. Jack Rockart, co-founder of MIT CISR and its director from 1974–2000, passed away on February 3, 2014. I’m Jeanne Ross, the current director of the Center for Information Systems Research, also known as CISR, at MIT’s Sloan School of […]

Jack Rockart, the beloved co-founder of MIT CISR and its director from 1974–2000, passed away on February 3, 2014. Although Jack had retired from CISR in 2002, he remained active until last year, participating in weekly research staff meetings, attending CISR sponsor events, and counseling researchers on their projects and presentations. His passion for IT […]