Investing in Innovation

Bangalore: It is high time that CIOs shed 80/20 rule they have been following so religiously from the past couple of decades. Now the 80/20 rule dictates that 80 percent of the budget allotted to IT sector is being utilized by the CIO to maintain the already existing projects, leaving as little as 20 percent for growth-oriented innovation. As such, CIOs need to reshuffle their budget priorities if they want to freeze their foothold in the success of the organization, rather standing as mere spectators, reports Bob Evans of Information Week.

Evans feels that the ratio should be incremented at least a minimum of 5 percent every year. He states, “IT policies of the past are sucking up vast percentages of the IT budget and make it almost impossible for CIOs to fund essential new efforts in analytics or cloud or mobile or social.”

Moreover, a CIO, primarily known as innovation driven executive, find it hard to cater to the needs of analytics or cloud or mobile or social as a result of lack in resources. These new trends have come to be viewed as the catalyst that marks the fine line between the success and failure of an organization.

On top of that, neglecting these aspects of the business can result in CIOs being ultimately answerable to CMOs and other marketing heads that understand the potential of such technologies that may result in the competitive advantage for the enterprise.

Stephen Lamb, CIO of the British Columbia Institute of Technology, advocating the same viewpoint quips, “CIOs have unique insight into their organization because we touch aspects of life in every department. The CIO must shift away from just being a gatekeeper and help the organization to thrive.”

The picture is crystal clear for CIOs.