CIO- Multifarious Roles in the Organization

Bangalore: Gone are the days when technology was seen as a mere enabler of the business function. While previously technology was relegated to managing a few aspects of running a business, today it has a crucial part in enabling the same business to flourish.

Along with this altered perception, there is the understanding among the C- suite that the CIO is not just in charge of technology, he is also responsible for linking technology to the revenue. Addressing the ever changing of the CIO, CIO Leadership Forum was organized on January 24, 2013.

Ramesh C. S., Vice President - CIO & Head of KM, Titan Industries who gave the inaugural key note remarked, "CIOs need to collaborate/ listen/ take input on continuous basis from their stakeholders and also the same can be segmented depending on the category of stakeholder. Especially keeping a focus on Next Gen- Stakeholder, whose inputs are sometimes different and interesting."

Today, there is also a need for CIOs to develop their business acumen and know their organization’s key function and competitors. T.Sivaram, CIO ( Airport Sector), GMR Group stated, “CIOs should look more towards understanding the business and business requirements. CIOs should interact more with various teams in the business and should ensure participation in all strategic meetings. CIOs should be effective change management leaders. Technology, people, processes and the way people should get benefit from IT are the few areas he should be a Change leader. CIO should ensure that IT is put to use effectively in the organization else there will not be a CIO.”

Remarking about the ever increasing importance of a multi- faceted CIO, Karunakar K, CIO of Global Green Company stated, “Every CIO sees his role as business role in addition to keeping the LIGHTS ON. They are being drawn into the team for all business initiatives and projects as the line between processes and technology becomes obscure. Additionally, CIOs are playing dual roles of bringing latest technological innovations to enable revenue growth, new markets and also contribute to bottom line by bringing process efficiencies and meeting business challenges.”

Along with proliferation of the latest technology, emerges the need to ensure that the software is compliant and that usage does not result in security breaches which could be fatal for an organization. “With security attacks getting more sophisticated and trends like IT consumerization, flatter networks, explosion of Internet applications, and APTs setting in, management of multiple security solutions to tackle these threats is becoming a network threat,” remarked Sunil Sharma, VP- Operations, Cyberoam.

With every industry focusing more on consumers, there is a need for IT to key in on what the regular user will be benefitted by. Srivatsan Krishnan, Head - Informatics/IT, Biocon Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Center specified, “In this day and age of consumerization of IT, innovative ideas can come from anywhere; within or outside the organization. They need to be managed appropriately, keeping in mind the organization’s strategy.”