In the Shoes of a CIO

CIO's are expected not to confine themselves with the conventional roles and duties assigned to them as technology has penetrated almost every nook and corner of an organization. As such a CIO will not only have to put the garb on of a quintessential IT leader but also explore the possible pros and cons this surge in technology has engulfed an enterprise, by ComputerworldUK.

Panelists at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts have duly observed that CIO's will have to undergo rigorous preparations to ensure that the security of an organization is not compromised with trends such as bring-your-own-device are on the rise among various companies.

Sensata, a company that manufactures sensors and controls for industrial use, was a pioneer in endorsing BYOD after a careful contemplation on the implications. It skillfully adapted to this innovative trend by adopting a cloud - based collaboration tool that can intervene breaches in security efficaciously without the need of a complete shutdown of employee data and devices.

Scott Penberthy, managing director, technology, at accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who also served as CTO of Apple mobile app development company AppOrchard, observed that, "Mobile security decisions, though, impact more than how a company protects its assets. A clunky user interface on a mobile device can cost an employee time and ultimately result in business going to a competitor. Those decisions are impacting how people view your company, how people interact with your business and the cycle time of productivity."

As such, the work load on IT managers just got heavier as now the image of the company is also, to some extent, depends on the functionality of the IT department. Moreover, due to lack of resources in the form of personals, predominantly in the IT sector, a careful recruitment selection process is imperative to advocate the need IT-smarts in job descriptions.

The dormant potential in big data, enabling the Marketing and IT sectors to traverse synchronically, which have a positive influence on sales as well as on business intelligence also cannot be ignored. Big data can also be utilized in understanding marketing conditions and making real - time marketing decisions.

As Dan Sheehan, chief operating officer of Modell's Sporting Goods, previously working for Dunkin' Brands, the organization that franchises Dunkin' Donuts coffee and doughnut shops and where Sheehan served as CIO before joining Modell's said, "Daily restaurant sales data was analyzed and available for marketing the following afternoon so the department could immediately align their marketing spending to an area's sales." This solidifies the overwhelming importance of big data in conducting a market research.

Championing on the same subject, Rob Stefanic, CIO of Sensata Technology judiciously points out, "Now, analyzing internal and external data together allows the company to get ahead of the curve as opposed to continuing to look back. In addition to identifying trends, finding value in the data leads to more acceptance of business intelligence efforts. Once we can share with the organization how they can see patterns forming, the adopt rate goes up tremendously."

To put it plainly, CIO's need to lend their voice in a more free - spirited manner to these emerging and evolving trends after a close scrutiny of the same as it is not only the IT department they have to root for, it is the organization as a whole. Being a CIO is just getting tougher and tougher!