CIOs Undergoing Transition

Bangalore: Over the years, we have witnessed a massive change pertaining to the role of CIOs depending on the organization, the industry, the business strategies, the prevailing market conditions and the financial climate in terms of business value. But the most striking of all the roles that a CIO has donned must be his ability to merge both business process and technology while instilling innovation in order to generate revenue that has truly marked his transformation, reports Keith Mattioli of KPMG.

According to a recent survey conducted for KPMG LLP by CIO magazine and IDG Research Services, a CIO will soon be identified as a Chief Integration Officer owing to the dual responsibilities of managing both operations as well as strategies. But the stumbling block will come across when their new role is put into practicality as they are still having a clouded vision of the organizational governance.

What it means is that the CIO’s traditional role has evolved from providing IT services to various sectors according to the needs within an organization. Although under the new role, a CIO needs to provide the same services across the organization – be it email and collaboration tools or storage and networking services.

This might spawn governance issues and thus managers possessing the same technologies should accommodate the functions of the other sectors. There should be a clear division of roles and responsibilities and a proper co-ordination of various departments keeping in line with the IT silos.

Therefore, CIOs need to make this transition from service providers to strategic decision makers if they are willing to contribute to the overall growth of the business –financially or otherwise.