McKinsey on Business Technology

Time to Raise the CIO's Game
As economies around the world emerge from the current turndown, many executives understand that what follows probably won’t be just another turn of the business cycle. This new period will see a restructuring of the economic order. Some are calling it the new normal marked by persistent uncertainty, tighter credit, lower consumer spending and greater government involvement in business. For executives who run major IT organizations, the implications are clear: they will have to make the IT function dramatically more productive, use IT more effectively to meet larger company goals, and embrace disruptive technologies that will shape the new economic terrain. Download

How Companies are Benefitting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results
In our latest survey of executives we learn why Web 2.0 remains of high interest: 69 percent of respondents report that their companies have gained measurable business benefits, including more innovative products and services, more effective marketing, better access to knowledge, a lower cost of doing business, and higher revenues. Companies that made greater use of the technologies, the results show, report even greater benefits. We also looked at the driver of these improvements. For example, the types of technologies companies are using, management practices that produce benefits, and any organizational and cultural characteristics that may contribute to the gains. We found that successful companies not only tightly integrate Web 2.0 technologies with the work flows of their employees but also created a "networked company," linking themselves with customers and suppliers through the use of Web 2.0 tools. Despite the current recession, respondents overwhelmingly say that they will continue to invest in Web 2.0. Download

Increasing the Impact of e-Government
Early breakthroughs in e-government - the use of information and communications technologies to provide and improve public-sector services, transactions, and interactions - have enabled government organizations to deliver better service and improve effectiveness and efficiency. In many countries, more than 70 percent of taxpayers now file taxes electronically, for example, and many other transactions - ranging from renewing drivers' licenses and paying parking tickets to managing government benefits - can be conducted online. Employees within government agencies also use the Internet routinely to manage internal processes, such as human resources and travel. However, despite the continued allocation of enormous resources, progress on the e-government front appears to have plateaued over the past few years. Many new e-government initiatives have neither generated the anticipated interest among users nor enabled clear gains in operational efficiency. In the face of unprecedented fiscal constraints, as well as users' heightened expectations based on the integration of the Internet into their daily life and work, it is imperative that the public sector refine its approach to e-government to ensure that these initiatives achieve maximum impact. Download

How Innovators are Changing IT Offshoring
Despite the global downturn, the IT offshoring and outsourcing industry has continued to grow, though at a slower pace. The recession’s main effect has been heightened competition among the hundreds of IT service providers that handle a variety of tasks for global corporations. Now, a small group of winners is emerging from the fray, threatening to erode the offshore franchise of many Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers in countries such as India, the Philippines, and Russia. Our 2008–09 survey of the global IT offshoring and outsourcing industry - covering 200 relationships among companies in Asia, Europe, and North America, including 65 of the Fortune 200 - shows that these rising suppliers have had a broad impact. In fact, they are redefining many traditional management practices; changing the long-standing model for contracting offshore services, by focusing on the quality of services delivered rather than the usual benchmarks of costs per offshore hire; collaborating with clients in new ways; and gaining more control over outsourcing strategies. Download