Across organizations, there is reserved optimism for 2010. All facets of business will face challenges in the year to come, and information technology is no exception. This year, IT departments will need to remain cost effective and efficient, while continuing to support the needs of the business. New projects may take a back seat to other initiatives, such as limiting costs, and keeping pace with on-going changes in the economic climate. Identifying and balancing these varying priorities will be critical. The Society for Information Management (SIM) recently published a survey of CIOs and IT Executive leaders, regarding their priorities and concerns as they wrap up 2009 and move into the New Year:

The underlying theme indicated in the survey results is clear, “IT executives are focusing on ensuring that business is conducted efficiently to get more mileage out of their budgets,” explains Jerry Luftman, Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at Stevens Institute of Technology^1.

^{At Risetime, we work with our clients every day on goals such as those highlighted in the survey. The #1 trend in the survey, business productivity and cost reduction, is straightforward: efficiency improvement and automation of business processes can eliminate redundancy, thereby reducing costs and errors.  Consider a Risetime BPM Value Assessment to determine the efficiency of your business processes and achieve this goal.}

^{In addition, IT and business alignment, was a topic Risetime highlighted in 2009 as an ongoing concern for IT, as meeting the needs of the business remains critical to the overall success of the department. Revisit our article for some ideas on achieving alignment.}