Retained IT needs a small nut. But that takes big balls.

Between April 2012 and April 2013, summit organizer GDS International gathered together 231 North American CIOs, vice presidents and IT directors for a collective 7.5 days of structured conversation, learning and networking.

Last month, they handed MeetTheBoss TV the resultant data and asked us to write about it. You can download the full CIO U.S. IT Spending Intelligence Report here.

It was a fascinating insight into the hard lines of business. Not what you say, but what you do. And at the moment, it looks like only big businesses are doing innovation.

According to two key figures related to budget allocation (page 7 in the report), senior IT executives with budgets over $300 million, spend 30% on maintaining existing systems and around 27% on growing the business. Nicely balanced.

Senior IT executives with budgets under $25 million, spend 46% on maintaining existing systems and only 17.5% on growing the business. Their investment for moving forwards is a slice over one third of their investment in standing still.

Does big business own the future? It looks like those managing massive budgets are better placed to pull even further ahead. Their spending engines are not only larger (although, of course, they have a heavier weight to pull), their power is more evenly spread. It’s difficult to remember a race won by a car with all thrust to one wheel.

Has it ever been thus? Quite possibly, but all IT execs are playing in a different game these days – better tools, higher stakes. IT is no longer an enabler of business; it is the enabler of business. The decades old argument of having a seat at the table is moot. Today it doesn’t matter where you sit if you are making decisions that matter – especially if you’re in the $25 million and under category.

What can be commoditized and standardized? HR, finance, storage… draw up a business case and get it out of the enterprise. Shift your budgets and change your skillsets. Focus retained IT on value add, build some labs, start some skunkworks projects.

There is a scene in the Judd Apatow movie This is 40. Paul Rudd plays an overstretched music label owner whose hope for a big payday rests with the reunion of a forgotten supergroup. But the concert is empty, the press uninterested, and album sales close to zero.

Rudd’s character turns to the lead singer of the group and asks if he is okay with this. “Yeah man, I’m fine,” says the singer. “I have very few overheads. The secret? It’s all about having a small nut.”

Retained IT needs a small (and HUGELY valuable) nut. But that takes big balls.

Worth reading

Elsewhere, The CIO U.S. IT Spending Intelligence Report covers the difference in investment priorities between April 2012 and September 2012 (clue: IT really gets its house in order by the end of a financial year); the progression of investment priorities over time (in April 2012 we asked where they forecast spend in 12 months. In April 2013 we checked); and five vital lessons for the IT curious. It’s well worth reading, and not just because – in the interests of full transparency – GDS International is the parent company of MeetTheBoss TV.

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Technology,IT Security, Big-Data, Data-Center,Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud, Enterprise Commerce, Customer Experience, Leadership,Mobility