During 2011, the Governance team recorded 272 conversations with finance and IT leaders in multinational organisations. Some were in response to client initiated enquiries, others were conversations during the course of our research. For the first time since we started our practice in 2007, we have reviewed these records to highlight popular threads.

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Looking ahead

2011 was a truly amazing year for everyone connected with technology, and we do not expect the pace to slow down in 2012. Together with our esteemed colleagues at the ICT Research Network, we have compiled our big bets for the next 18 months. Europe’s economy, her citizens and policies will drive defensive business strategies. We predict technology mandate will continue towards service orientation and sourcing will focus on outcomes more explicitly. Read the full analysis here.

New in 2012

Thank you to our subscribers for a fantastic 2011. As always, your enquiries during the year form the basis of new research streams for us. In 2012 we launch a new research stream to highlight supply side dynamics. Our objective is to answer questions around offerings and resources, to support internal IT teams’ shortlisting requirements. We do not intend to track revenues or market shares; rather, our mandate is to review selected suppliers’ approach and what outcomes they aspire to.

Socializing evidence

As part of our eClinical review, earlier this month we looked at why qualified information sources are flourishing among medical practitioners and their patients alike. UpToDate is a specialist information provider, in business to help clinicians be better informed. It runs an editorial board of over 4,800 authors, editors, and peer reviewers who contribute by writing and continuously updating over 9,000 topics across 19 specialties addressing questions that arise in clinical practice.

Open source support

Sirius is the smallest of the ten companies in our maintenance review. Its approach highlights how maintenance and managed services should be approached, before expensive layers of marketing and sales need to be funded. For its corporate, SME, education and public sector clients, this approach represents excellent value for money. We discovered an entirely fresh approach to services management tools and processing during our tour of its services delivery centre in Weybridge.