Changing reality for the Digital CIO

Picture this….you are a CIO in a large enterprise and have no legacy applications/infrastructure and have the flexibility to use any number of SaaS-based solutions to meet business needs. Sadly that is not the reality for large enterprises.  Most enterprise organisations have legacy systems but also want the freedom to focus on innovation by creating new customer-focused digital services whilst also keeping the lights on.  So what should a Digital CIO do to make this happen and change reality? take the “bimodal IT” approach, adopt or adapt?

What is bimodal IT?

Bimodal IT is a dual-faceted approach to managing information technology, combining the need for stability with the excitement of innovation. It’s like having a foot in both camps, ensuring your business runs smoothly while also keeping an eye on the horizon for new opportunities:

1. The first mode focuses on maintaining and optimizing existing systems, emphasizing reliability, efficiency, and risk mitigation. This traditional approach ensures the smooth operation of core business functions and legacy infrastructure.
2. The second mode embraces agility and experimentation, fostering rapid development and deployment of new technologies. This innovative track allows organizations to quickly respond to market changes and explore emerging digital opportunities.

By adopting this two-pronged “bimodal IT” strategy, organizations can simultaneously preserve the integrity of their established IT foundation while cultivating a culture of innovation and digital transformation. This approach enables businesses to navigate the complexities of modern technology landscapes, balancing the need for operational consistency with the imperative to evolve and adapt in an increasingly digital world.

The concept of Bimodal IT was first introduced by Garter back in 2014: Bimodal IT: How to Be Digitally Agile Without Making a Mess

“Collaborative bimodal IT”

One way of delivering innovation and stability is to take a “bimodal” approach to execution. Gartner defines this “as the practice of managing two separate coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability and the other on agility. Mode 1 is traditional and sequential, emphasising safety and accuracy. Mode 2 is exploratory and nonlinear, emphasising agility and speed”.  

Whilst I support the bi-modal approach, I do not agree with focusing solely on innovation at the expense of just keeping the lights on.  In this article, I will look at how taking a “collaborative bi-modal approach” can help a Digital CIO, and ultimately an organisation, to become more innovative and customer-focused whilst also transforming the organisation’s legacy systems.  There are 6 key areas that an organisation and CIO should consider when looking to create a successful “collaborative bimodal IT approach” within the business of IT:

1. The Digital CIO

The CIO is a key position within an organisation when it comes to leading a large-scale digital transformation initiative. They must be able to positively challenge the status quo, influence business leaders and set a vision and strategy that details the desired transformation outcomes (e.g. taking a digital-first approach).  Ideally, the CIO has broad experience across industries as well as in the enterprise and start-up communities, so he/she will have received the benefit of working in a fast-paced customer-centric environment (e.g. UX, Agile or Lean) with the ability to apply these insights to an enterprise organisation.

It is vital that a Digital CIO stays up to date with industry and technology trends (Cloud or not? IoT, digital, SaaS) and can demonstrate, or at least has a view on, how these can be utilised by the organisation both now and in the future.  Being relevant and current reduces an organisation’s need to look elsewhere for advice and technology solutions. 

Staying current may also require a review of how IT is structured.  digital is not one particular “thing” – it’s a change in mindset and a move away from the traditional to being more about an organisation’s use of social media and analytics to drive decisions as well as how it uses the “cloud” (SaaS, AWS or Azure), and it’s about having a mobile presence for its products, services and support. The strategies and subsequent use of social media, analytics, mobility & cloud by any organisation must coexist.

2. Innovation

It is very hard to innovate within a team managing legacy systems. By creating a separate innovation team that is not constrained by legacy, an organisation can move at a greater rate of change.  That said, legacy systems must not be overlooked as being able to be transformed through innovation. The team focused on innovation within an organisation can work with those who manage such legacy systems to transform them over time for the digital age.

A relatively small change such as automating server builds in the legacy environment could be a huge step forward or putting a modern API in front of it.  Innovation must also have a purpose – to solve a particular problem – otherwise innovating could just be seen as “skunk works”.

3. Team, Culture and Talent       

Searching for the right talent is also crucial to creating a collaborative bi-model approach. The right talent is multi-skilled, comfortable with rapid change and has a willingness to collaborate towards achieving a shared vision.  To enable your team to innovate there must be a supportive culture in place, where employees can have the time and freedom to innovate, and where they’re trusted and given authority to create and implement innovative solutions. 

To encourage innovation organisational leaders need to support innovation by removing inhibitors such as time spent dealing with day-to-day incidents.  Another way to give your teams a chance to have their ideas heard could be to have individuals/teams pitch ideas every month to senior leaders for possible implementation.  If their idea is selected they could then have a set period of time to turn that idea into a product or service.

4. Get the basics right

If the IT team can’t deliver the basics (e.g. on projects, service levels or advice in general) then Digital CIOs risk losing the trust of the organisation and may be overlooked for their advice to the executive team.  If CIOs cannot consistently and quickly deliver to the needs of the organisation then he/she may see a proliferation of shadow IT within the company – again, a possible sign that IT is not being agile or responsive enough to meet the needs of the organisation. 

Above all, get the basics right so IT can build on solid technology decisions and solutions that support the organisation and its strategies (growth or otherwise).  If necessary a partnership model may be appropriate where the CIO can look for suitable partners to assist in areas that IT does not consider as core to its business.

5. Define a Clear Strategy

What does IT stand for and how will it support organisational goals? How will it use and create digital services?  How can IT support the organisation’s need to be more digital, in a world where the need to be digital or die is so prevalent? As Forbes (Cloud is the foundation for digital Transformation, 2014) has recognised: “Since 2000, 52% of companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired or ceased to exist”. In my view, these organisations have failed to keep up with the rate of change resulting in their ultimate demise.

6. SaaS and Cloud

I have separated having a Cloud strategy from an overall strategy as it is essential for articulating how an organisation should use Cloud and SaaS-based services to support the current organisational needs, future growth and a possible move away from legacy systems reducing the need to invest capital in on-premise infrastructure and software.  SaaS-based services should also form a vital part of any future organisational strategy and should be compared with traditional services as part of any product selection. 

Using SaaS-based cloud applications can also ensure that the provision of organisational business continuity planning is inherently provided for because users can mostly work anywhere with an Internet connection. The SaaS-based approach also frees up the IT team from having to manage non-core tools such as email or service management systems. There are no upgrades, storage increases, server licenses or server management because users are just given access when an approved service request is received.  

The use of SaaS-based services within an organisation can also give small (including start-ups) and large companies alike the flexibility around function, capacity and cost.   Of course, with any cloud-based service, suitable research and product selection should be undertaken to ensure it meets the organisation’s requirements, both from an availability and a security perspective.

Not at the expense of legacy

The collaborative bimodal IT approach will only work if the focus on innovation is not at the expense of legacy technology. Transforming legacy systems is a challenge but not impossible.  To do it requires a CIO who has the vision, energy and leadership to deliver this collaborative bimodal IT approach to IT for an organisation and ultimately its customers.  

If CIOs keep the bimodal IT approach very separate as per Gartner’s description “the practice of managing two separate coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability and the other on agility”. Mode 1 is traditional and sequential, emphasising safety and accuracy. Mode 2 is exploratory and nonlinear, emphasising agility and speed”), the IT team’s focus on supporting legacy systems may result in limited career progression and diminished future technology options.  

The innovation side of the bimodal IT model approach should also look at ways to transform legacy systems whilst also using the teams assigned to support legacy systems as knowledge experts, therefore encouraging collaboration and a more inclusive approach to innovation.

Data, a critical foundation for AI

The digital CIO plays a crucial role in implementing a bimodal IT approach, balancing traditional IT operations with innovative, agile methodologies. In this context, data becomes a critical asset for driving digital transformation and driving a culture of data-driven decision-making. The digital CIO must leverage data analytics to gain insights into both modes of IT delivery, ensuring that legacy systems are optimized to ensure data is being collected/stored in the organizational data warehouse while new, customer-centric digital services are developed. 

By adopting a data-driven approach, CIOs can effectively manage the two-speed IT model, using real-time visibility to align both traditional and agile IT initiatives with overarching organizational goals. This data-driven strategy enables CIOs to identify opportunities for innovation, streamline legacy processes, and make informed decisions about resource allocation across both modes of IT delivery. It also enables the organization to gain visibility of data from multiple systems be they legacy or new using a single data visualisation tool (such as Power BI or Tableau).

For me, data is a non negotiable when taking a bimodal IT approach as an organization will require data from all it systems to ensure a holistic approach to decision making, without data from legacy system you are flying with on engine. Also a if you are looking leverage Artifical Intelligence (AI) this can not be done with quality data.

The leader of change must be the Digital CIO

The CIO and their IT Teams should not just be about keeping the lights on – this historic strategy will not be good enough in this digital age.  Organisations will require IT to guide them through periods of significant change or lead digital strategies and innovation.   IT through the Digital CIO must therefore be an influencer and leader of change and must ensure it can respond to the current and future needs of the organisation and lead industry changes by being flexible and having agility to respond to customer needs. 

This can be achieved by looking to implement a collaborative bimodal IT approach to transform and innovate where the legacy systems are not pushed aside at the expense of innovation but are instead transformed through innovation.

Read more on the CIO: Leadership – 5 Ways a CIO remains relevant in this Digital Age

Orginal article written in 2016, updated and republished in 2023