1. Create a business/IT rotation program. Businesspeople often don’t know what to ask for from IT, and IT people often don’t know about business situations where IT could be applied. Move IT people into the business and vice versa and watch innovation bloom.2. Move the focus from technology testing to simulation in a business context. Systems can work well and still fail because they don’t meet a business need. Test your systems in a business context—with real people, data and customers. 3. Build an innovation team. Innovation during the course of projects or daily business is accidental. Make it purposeful by devoting a small group to ongoing pilot projects and meetings with businesspeople.4. Mesh IT development with product development. Product engineers are often segregated from IT, but with increasing levels of technology built into products, IT people could help speed the development process or even collaborate on new products. 5. Look outside the enterprise to partner with others on innovation. A swarm of small, global companies has moved in to take the place of big, internal corporate R&D departments. 6. Squeeze savings out of the infrastructure and dedicate the money to innovation. A program to constantly reduce fixed costs means there will be more money for innovation…without budget increases. 7. Use process improvement methodologies (CMM, ITIL and so on) to decrease innovation cycle time. Using CMM to standardize and improve software development processes means new projects can be completed more quickly.8. Conduct interviews with all levels of the business. These discussions don’t have to be limited to specific projects. Interviewing businesspeople about what they do, what their problems are and what they’d like to do next is the first step toward innovation.9. Create a joint IT and business capital spending plan. Many companies consider IT and business spending separately. It’s time to merge them. Linking the IT budget to plans to build a new factory could make it a better factory.10. Design contractual requirements for innovation spending and planning with outside vendors. You devote a portion of your spending to innovation, so why not make business-specific innovation a part of your contracts with your vendors? Sources: Forrester Research, Gartner, CIO reporting Related content brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks When your AI chatbots mess up AI ‘hallucinations’ present significant business risks, but new types of guardrails can keep them from doing serious damage By Paul Gillin Dec 08, 2023 4 mins Generative AI brandpost Sponsored by Dell New research: How IT leaders drive business benefits by accelerating device refresh strategies Security leaders have particular concerns that older devices are more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. By Laura McEwan Dec 08, 2023 3 mins Infrastructure Management case study Toyota transforms IT service desk with gen AI To help promote insourcing and quality control, Toyota Motor North America is leveraging generative AI for HR and IT service desk requests. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 08, 2023 7 mins Employee Experience Generative AI ICT Partners feature CSM certification: Costs, requirements, and all you need to know The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification sets the standard for establishing Scrum theory, developing practical applications and rules, and leading teams and stakeholders through the development process. By Moira Alexander Dec 08, 2023 8 mins Certifications IT Skills Project Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe