Move Forward, Embrace Digital Transformation

"IT organizations are at a crossroads – with one foot in the new digital world of cloud, big data analytics, social media, mobile, and the Internet of Things, and another foot in the past, constrained by legacy technologies and skill sets," Mark Peacock, IT transformation practice leader for The Hackett Group, said in a statement. "Many IT leaders are overwhelmed by this challenge, and they are likely to find themselves marginalized."

Hackett recommends that IT organizations continually monitor and explore technology innovations to come up with value-creation opportunities. And they should also shorten solution development times, "moving beyond traditional waterfall-based methods and adopting rapid application development approaches," the Hackett statement read.

The solution provider takeaway? VARs that offer custom application development, especially the agile methods that can deliver functionality quickly, can find opportunity here.