ITI Evolving to Take on Important Challenges

Technology and innovation have broken through the industrial age’s barriers to commerce at a pace and degree unimaginable even to the entrepreneurs and inventors who ushered us into this extraordinary era.  The resulting progress has transformed how people around the world live, work, learn, and play.  We have left behind a more remote, siloed world and have progressed to a dynamic, interconnected globe where political borders are secondary to social platforms.

In this new world order, “evolve or become extinct” is a guiding ethos that remains at the forefront of our minds at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI).  Like the member companies we represent, we have continuously worked to transform ourselves throughout our nearly 100 years of history to truly reflect the dynamism and innovative spirit of our members.  The coming year will be no exception. Working closely with our members, ITI will:

  • Significantly increase our advocacy investment in expanding global market access, which will include a new and sustained presence in India to complement our effective footprint in China;
  • Launch a pilot initiative that will use data analytics and social media channels to build measureable grassroots support, and harness our message and allies to supplement our ground-game federal advocacy;
  • Build a new platform that will enable closer collaboration among the intersecting industries of the innovation ecosystem with the goal of removing the policy frictions to innovations and showcasing the next generation of transformative technologies;
  • Ensure the “efficiency economy" is recognized as a genuine economic movement from CAPEX to OPEX by building alliances and communicating more clearly about IT-enabled energy productivity and sustainability; and,
  • Create a new venture called the Information Technology Alliance for Public Sector (ITAPS), which will promote, through market-shaping advocacy, federal, state and local government understanding and procurement of cutting-edge technologies and creating an enabling regulatory environment for access to such technologies.

These initiatives will build on a solid foundation and stellar team at ITI that has taken tech sector advocacy to new heights and dimensions.  As we prepare to celebrate our centennial in 2016, we know that we are at the precipice of an emerging technology-driven renaissance that is likely to transform the current information age as it did the industrial revolution.  This will be a global revolution that isn’t solely about mass production but also innovation and mass customization that will again spur economic growth on a global scale.

This potential economic rejuvenation is real, but is threatened by outdated, hidebound policy approaches that, like the industrial age, belong in the rear view mirror.  Like the entrepreneurs and inventors that ushered in the information age, policymakers must break down the barriers to cross-border commerce and let innovation flourish.

At ITI, as we continue to evolve and re-invent, we are better preparing ourselves to be stronger advocates for an innovation rejuvenation that continues to change the world for good.