A.T. Kearney Study Identifies Best Practices in IT Innovation Based on Methods of High-Growth Companies

NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A.T. Kearney today released findings from its 2012 IT Innovation study titled: IT Innovation Spurs Renewed Growth.  With more than a decade of experience tracking what companies are doing to create game-changing products, services, and value-chain solutions, A.T. Kearney reveals a constellation of practices that correlate with IT innovation, all of which occur with greater frequency in high-growth, as opposed to medium- and low-growth, companies. 

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High-growth companies invest more in IT innovation than their counterparts, doing so earlier in the technology lifecycle.  They have made the transition from using technology to merely streamline operations to deploying it as an engine for driving revenue growth.  Further, effective technology innovators rely less on third parties and invest in building capacity for innovation into their IT organizational structures.  Collaboration between IT executives and colleagues from other business functions is strong in these financially successful organizations, and IT is increasingly serving as an "innovation incubator" for solutions that deliver business value.  Apart from innovation, high-growth companies excel at managing IT services overall, which allows them to allocate more time and resources to innovation.

Perceptions of the Importance of IT Innovation are Out of Sync with IT Investments

Over the course of a decade kicked off with a dot-com bust and enterprise systems failing to deliver value, and ending with a severe economic slowdown and IT architectures having grown so complex as to stifle innovation, some interesting contrasts have emerged.  Characterized on one hand by massive forces constraining innovation, rapidly emerging technologies, expanding mobile commerce, technology-enabled disruption of traditional business models, and Big Data have spurred a digital transformation of epic proportions.  Christian Hagen, a Chicago-based partner notes, "While executives have become increasingly aware of the importance of IT innovation in creating competitive advantage, they have spent less on it year-over-year."

"Economic distress and painful lessons learned have converged with a chronic challenge faced by CIOs, which is articulating the benefits of IT innovation to business colleagues," says Hagen "and all of this has made executives more conservative about IT spending. Our research extracts a clear view of the relationship between IT innovation and enhanced growth.  This is an important correlation for executives to understand," adds Hagen.

About A.T. Kearney

A.T. Kearney is a global team of forward-thinking, collaborative partners that delivers immediate, meaningful results and long-term transformative advantage to clients. Since 1926, we have been trusted advisors on CEO-agenda issues to the world's leading organizations across all major industries and sectors. A.T. Kearney's offices are located in major business centers in 39 countries.

SOURCE A.T. Kearney