From the Editor – Taking a Long, Hard Strategic Look at IT

SPRING 2009

Let’s call this the issue of smart investments.

When companies start noticing that their profit margins are shrinking, the first reaction is often to dramatically decrease their IT budgets, with strategic IT development being an early casualty. But that does not seem to be the case this year. Underneath the attention-grabbing headlines focused on wastefulness, most companies are really thinking things through. They are being mindful of their spending and at the same time refusing to sit down quietly and wait out the financial downturn.

According to Novarica analyst Matthew Josefowicz, the right approach for companies right now is to take a strategic look at IT investments as if their competitive edge depends on it. It is now during the downturn, he says, that carriers should be making those long-needed reforms in their operating strategies and technology capabilities. That’s the only way they are going to ensure their competitiveness when the economy recovers. 

Throughout this spring issue, you will notice stories of companies that are doing just that. They are working to making themselves leaner, more agile and in a much better position to respond to the changes ahead. 

And there are a few such companies deserving extra recognition. They are the five winners of the annual Windows in Financial Services Developer Awards, chosen among their peers for their winning strategic IT investment plans that lend critical support to the enterprise. They are Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, State Bank of India, and TransUnion. The awards this year will be presented at the Seventh Annual Microsoft Enterprise Developer and Industry Solutions Conference in New York on May 5-6 (See page 22). 

And on our cover this issue is Safeco Corporation, which was acquired by Liberty Mutual last September. For property and casualty insurers, success is tied to their ability to satisfy their customers’ needs by enhancing their product ranges on an ongoing basis. So in order to improve its product development capabilities, including speed-to-market, the company turned to Accenture’s Insurance Configuration Components (ICC) software solution. 

In these pages, you will also hear from Peter Johnson, senior vice president of Enterprise Architecture and Web Services at the Bank of New York Mellon. He weighs in on how best to strike that balance between cutting spending and meeting the changing demands of its customers. The challenge requires a little strategic planning, for as he points out, the customer priorities one had set just three months ago may no longer be valid. 

There is certainly no question that we have entered a challenging period, but if the pages of this publication are any indication, it is the smart investors who prepare now who will be the success stories of the future.