EarlyBirds, a company that is in the business of helping organisations and their leaders use innovations from disruptive innovators to transform their business in a matter of weeks, wants to point out that a CIO can rise from business as usual (BAU) or simply managing IT to become a more strategic and proactive leader. They explain that the modern technology leader, such as the Chief Information Officer (CIO), can focus on BAU but at the same time be proactive in leading innovations across the organisation. The CIO has to enable other business functions across the enterprise and at the same time decrease shadow IT issues. This can be done without too many costs and avoiding internal politics by using the Early Birds Innovation platform, ecosystem and programs that will extend the CIO’s ability to extend the team as an when needed.

There are many examples of why the CIO needs to be more proactive and strategic because of the impact of new technologies, such as mobile-first consumer shopping preferences and the use of AI in critical decision making. Technology will now need to drive the business and in this, the CIO has a critical role. The CIO can do this by focusing on three key strategies. First, the role of technology in the organisation must be redefined. Second, the delivery of technology has to be reinvented. This means enhancing IT services by using next-generation capabilities. Third, is to ensure that the organisation is future-proof. This means keeping pace with rapid technological developments by implementing a flexible architecture that is supported by modular platforms, using advanced cybersecurity to protect systems, and enabling data ubiquity.

Meanwhile, the EarlyBirds platform and open innovation ecosystem and assisted  Explorer and Challenger programs, has the primary goal of helping early adopters to transform organisational strategy into actionable innovation. CIOs can use the platform and programs to enable their teams to innovate across the enterprise.

Highly skilled EarlyBirds independent consultants lead the Explorer and Challenger programs. These consultants are Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in their specific fields. Their role is to work closely with business units, innovation teams, and external and internal stakeholders to define specific business challenges and resolve them with innovative solutions.

The goal of the Explorer program is to bring innovation to the whole organisation as a service, including subscription to the platform. This program provides: a nominated SME for the enterprise; a platform enterprise license; access to innovation boost webinars every week; monthly and quarterly innovation days; and focus on target area of innovations. An SME will work with the organisation to identify opportunities for introducing innovators that can offers solutions to a wide range of business problems.

On the other hand, the Challenger program is for those who want to focus on one specific challenge for the organisation at a time. The features of this program include: determining specific business problems and analysing the different available actionable innovations; working with the Early Birds SME to identify business issues and then explore possible innovators from its big data pool of 1.1 million innovations that may be appropriate for each challenge; and create a roadmap of alternatives for the next steps given to the customer at the conclusion of the program.

Early Birds seeks to transform businesses by applying actionable innovation by: taking a look at new business models in their specific industry; creating new or substantially enhancing the products and services of the business; significantly improving business processes; and establishing an enterprise innovation culture within the organisation. To be able to create an innovation culture in the organisation, the business has to do several things. These include allowing people to experiment with new solutions using disruptive innovations; allowing and encouraging people to share their ideas; taking the fail fast, learn faster approach; and creating an organic innovation culture throughout the organisation.

People who would like to know more about the services provided by Early Birds may want to check out their website or contact them via telephone or through email.

Note for SMEs:

SME’s may want to join the Early Birds Marketplace as consultants and become a part of the Early Birds open innovation ecosystem. For those keen on assisting their customers with disruptive innovations, Early Birds plays the important role by bringing start-up companies and scaleup companies including a framework for delivering their Explorer and Challenger programs to a wide range of industries and customers.