Guidelines For a CIO

As the days are changing, so does the technology. Today the primeval technologies are overshadowed by trends such as cloud computing, proliferation of consumer-focused mobile devices in the enterprise and Big Data analytics. According to a report by The Economist, as these trends erode the entrenched IT structure, CIOs and their teams must better align themselves with business needs or find themselves put out to pasture.

For ages, business has looked to a centralized IT function to manage technology infrastructure and offer services to business division and staffs. It’s the correct time that the CIOs and IT heads should prepare for the change as new technologies—cloud computing, consumer-focused mobile devices in the enterprise and Big Data analytics-are enveloping the structure. If the transformation is not done then they might be left reeling in the past.

According to a new report, "The C-suite Challenges IT: New Expectations for Business Value," written by The Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Dell Services, C-suite executives believe the IT function is poised for a major transformation: 57 percent of the 536 C-suite executives surveyed expect their IT function to change significantly over the next three years and 12 percent predict a ‘complete overhaul.’ An additional 43 percent say their company will increasingly use IT as a commodity service that is bought as and when needed, revealed an insight by Thor Olavsrud on CIO.

The Economist Intelligence Unit reports that the modifications these executives see on the horizon have the prospective to renovate not just the IT function but the total business, creating new prospects for companies to enlarge pioneering products and services, unite with customers in new ways and rethink traditional business processes. These changes present both hazard and opportunity to CIOs and their staff."When I was coming up, CIO stood for ‘career is over’," says Hord Tipton, who served as CIO of the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2002 to 2007 and is now executive director of security education and certification authority (ISC) 2. "Now IT is a critical component of the business. Nobody does business without IT."

Speaking in business terms
IT is much ahead as business is concerned. If IT is the core to the business, then the CIO and the team are of prior importance. The CIO and his team can be left behind if they are unable to tackle the C-suite's core requirements in language that communicate the business value of technology investments. The report reveals that CIOs and C-suite executive’s thoughts do not match on the arrangement issue: two-thirds of CIOs feel their function is well-aligned with the business, but less than one-half of C-suite executives feel the same way about their CIOs. Only 46 percent of C-suite executives say their CIOs understand the business and 44 percent say their CIOs understand the technical danger involved in new ways of using IT. "Ideally, business executives should be able to rely on their CIO for a briefing on the technical and business risks involved in new ways of using IT," the report states. But less than one-half of C-suite respondents say their CIO has a good understanding of these risks; up to one-quarter say it is poor. There are also gaps between the CIOs and their C-suite colleagues about how and where IT investment could best add value."

CIOs active participation helps to perform better
Companies attain financial performance superior to their peers that involves the CIO in business strategies. Out of 37 percent of respondents who said their CIO was vigorously involved in setting business strategy and 47 percent said their company financially outperformed business peers.  On the other side, among the 20 percent of respondents said the CIO had no role in business strategy and only 28 percent say they were performing better than industry peers.

Gambits to follow keeping in line with business
Three tactics CIOs can follow to position themselves better in the context of the business -
CIO’s can help the common man by pushing the budget down into the business so the people who pay for an IT service are those who benefit from it. Hence, this will be cost effective and would provide novel services that business managers actually want.CIO’s should try to enrich and encourage the cultural expectations. IT employees should play an energetic role in raising the business and not just facilitate the efforts of other employees.

Experimenting is always good
Experiment with IT helps in building information or skills even though it increases short-term technology costs.

The business should also believe in:-

Analyzing widely-
Technology novelty can also modify technology and not just the corporate; it can primarily change the way the business operates. Innovation is quite a big word and the impact of innovation to the wider direction of the business, not just to the future of the IT function.

IT function should be in inclusive-
Many organizations that have adapted to the changes wrought by cloud computing, mobile proliferation and Big Data analytics have done so by moving IT leaders out into the business, where they can align more closely with the needs of business units.

Knowing the company’s investment-
Assumption is always dangerous and assuming that IT investments necessarily mean a trade-off between cutting costs and driving revenue is absolutely baseless. These days, companies can often achieve both.

Associating innovation with risk-
IT is much more worried about the risks associated with cloud computing, mobile proliferation and big data analytics, but don't let the risks immobilize you. The threats can be recognized, reviewed, supervised or avoided, just like any other business risk.

These are a few guidelines that a CIO should adhere to in order to make the most from this technology boom.