previously unused third-party data. The model will Many companies have found they have the potential help the supplier spot potential issues with its own to free up as much as 45 percent of their IT costs suppliers’ ability to deliver needed items, offering over the course of a year. Our experience suggests a chance to reach out to its suppliers to work out that roughly two-thirds of this potential can be logistics or find another source. achieved through measures such as extending hardware- and software-refresh cycles, rapidly Other business areas can benefit from more renegotiating vendor contracts, and restricting cloud sophisticated modeling as well. A leading financial- workloads by turning off noncritical jobs. Additional services provider, for example, stood up an cuts get deeper into the cost structure and risk AI-powered solution to generate leads for its hamstringing future growth. The right balance will sales agents, with models calibrated to handle the vary by industry, but under any scenario, rightsizing current environment. should expose much needed investment capacity as quickly as possible to fund the 90-day plan. In the next 90 days. As a first step, the chief analytics officer (or equivalent) should mobilize As CIOs consider upgrading their tech stacks, two an effort to inventory core models that support features of a modern technology environment business operations and work with business leaders are particularly important and can be rapidly to prioritize them based on their impact on key implemented: a cloud-based data platform and an operations and their efficacy drift. This assessment automated software-delivery pipeline (commonly is urgent and should be completed as quickly as called “continuous integration and continuous possible. It will essentially define a program of delivery”). Without these, development velocity quick fixes that the data and analytics team can stalls and becomes mired in complexity. The good undertake, working hand in hand with business and news is that cloud technologies make it possible to functional leaders. Once the situation stabilizes, deploy these quickly and at relatively low cost. CEOs and business leaders should push their data and analytics teams to develop next-generation In the next 90 days. First, develop the plan to models that leverage new data sets and modeling rightsize and create a more variable cost structure— techniques better suited for fast-changing the faster the better to free up resources for the environments. The more advanced companies are digital agenda. already creating synthetic data sets using advanced machine-learning techniques, such as generative In the second 30-day sprint, choose your cloud adversarial networks (GANs) to train new analytical partners. While speed is of the essence, CIOs should models when historical data are of little use. thoughtfully consider the contractual structures offered by technology providers. Carefully review those that appear too good to pass up to ensure Selectively modernize that the providers aren’t capturing all the value. And technology capabilities remember to launch appropriate internal efforts Successfully executing the described agenda to train and prepare teams to operate in the new requires investment capacity and development environment. During this sprint, it’s also time to velocity. CIOs can contribute to both by rightsizing modernize the tech stack selectively—“selectively” the IT cost structure to new demand levels and being the operative word. Most companies won’t reinvesting the freed-up resources into customer- have the management bandwidth and resources to facing digital solutions and critical decision-support take on a full-scale modernization in the next 12 to systems, first and foremost. Companies can also 18 months. By focusing on setting up or enhancing dedicate some of the savings to modernizing a cloud-based data platform and equipping agile selectively the technology stack and software- teams with automated software delivery, CIOs can development tooling. double, or even triple, development velocity in the short term. The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days 17