A new spirit of resourcefulness

f the doom mongers are to be believed, parts of the financial services sector have put innovation in IT firmly on the back burner.

Despite its well-publicised travails, the financial services sector is still hugely important to the IT industry. Many others take their cue from the sector’s leaders. If senior decision makers in financial services decide there is no room for innovative IT, others are bound to take note.

Such a decision would be a huge mistake. The IT function is uniquely placed within the business to deliver the kind of efficiency gains business leaders so desperately seek as they grapple with the caustic impact of the worst recession in decades.

Thankfully, the IT chiefs working in financial services clearly recognise that they have to keep innovating. What has changed is the focus ­ from delivering eye-catching innovation to work under the hood, tuning organisational effectiveness through initiatives such as collaboration.

So while budgets may be tight within these firms, IT leaders are adapting, finding new ways to deliver performance-enhancing projects that don’t come with a big price tag.

Should such efforts be dismissed as “incremental innovation”? Hardly: the value of an IT project to the business is not always dependent on the cost. Unlocking internal knowledge and improving employees’ ability to interact with colleagues and customers can have huge benefits.

But those advocating incremental innovation seem to suggest that IT leaders should be setting their sights low. They shouldn’t.

If business leaders look at financial services IT, they should not be misled by talk of cost cutting, and assume that scaling back IT investment is the only sensible course in a difficult economy. Instead, they should understand how IT is once again demonstrating its ability to improve operations, and ensure organisations are able to seize any advantage possible when the upturn comes.