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CIOs are gaining influence and responsibility says...
…Information Week back in June, (been meaning to comment on this for some time), but the source seems to be CIOs themselves. That’s interesting because over the last year or so it has seemed that CIOs themselves were pessimistic about their role and prospects. More interesting is why this change has come about? After all the last five years has seen an increasing move to have the CIOs route to the management board blocked off and the reporting line to go to the Chief Financial Officer, CFO. That’s a sure sign that the role of IT and the CIO is cost driven!
BUT it’s the CEO and the Business managing CxOs that have come to the rescue, seems that they ‘get it’ when it comes to what is happening with technology and its possibilities for business. The result is that they are soliciting the CIO, and their team, to get involved by giving their guidance to new business requirements. The shift is amazing if the data provided by researching the views of 575 business and technology professionals is true, (and if may be CIOs over emphasising their importance that has produced the figures). Fully 34% now said they were actively involved in new major business decisions with only 21% saying that they were only brought in after the decision had been made.
88% say that the real driver is the new role of technology in customer facing and interfacing activities, and that their expertise with their department is considered a crucial new element in getting this right. Really bold CIOs are even commenting that there unique understanding of the way business really works and operates; (it’s all about IT stupid!), qualifies them for the top jobs. 29% say they are the potentially the next Chief Operating Officer, and 6% say CEO, but a more pragmatic group of 29% say Chief Technical Excellence Officer, but it’s the 19% who saying Chief Process Excellence Officer that I identify with.
The challenge for an organisation in a global competitive market is that the enterprise who first figures out how to link and focus their resources to react to market events, what my colleague Eddie Short calls the ‘Intelligent Enterprise’, will win. The only way I can see this working is by process excellence thorough technology and methodology. The capability to deliver and maintain a project, or a local business requirement, will have to move on, and the skill will be to design the business tasks well enough to genuinely be organised into reusable business task elements across the Enterprise processes.
Moving from the technology architect to the business architect and the only people currently who look able to aspire to this new role are from the IT department. Maybe that’s the reason for the new optimism? The IT department just looked around and saw it was the best qualified to help the business make its mark in the new markets. Now we have the opportunity we just have to make it happen, and that’s the tough bit.
Posted by Andy Mulholland on August 13, 2007 | 
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Comments
# on August 13, 2007 9:21 AM, Philipp Bohn said:
Our own research shows that in Germany almost 60% of business managers feel that their IT is doing a good job. However, 90% state that coordination and consulting between business and IT should be still closer. (We have surveyed business managers, no CIOs). You can download the report here: http://www.berlecon.de/itservicemanagement (in German)
# on August 30, 2007 2:51 PM, andy mulholland said:
I am going to revisit this topic as i have watched some new postings in other areas that suggest that we are seeing the beginings of a very clear change in the role of a CIO.
the key is satisfaction with the CIO in the present metrics of the role IT plays, or satisfaction that the CIO is playing a different role in the enterprise that is strategically driving change in business practice or capabilities
# on August 31, 2007 7:20 PM, Vikram Chandna said:
I thought that current IT trends being so much so much being centered around cost reduction it takes the focus away from innovation, which is what business really value.
Anyway my guess is that when IT world would welcome a business/operations person as CIO at that time the business world would start accepting a CIO in strategic roles. So the change probably has to start at home.
-Vikram/Philly/US
# on September 2, 2007 8:36 PM, andy mulholland said:
Its interesting Vikram that the CIO role debate has become more intense in the last month. so much so that i am planing a new post updating the topic.
as an example two leading UK retailers have abandoned the role and said it is due to moving from big 'cost' driven projects to a new 'business' driven era of small high impact business managed changes.
# on September 8, 2007 12:42 PM, Vikram Chandna said:
An interesting model I heard from my colleague is from organization - AAA insurance in US, which just doesn't have any IT of their own at all. IT is completely run by contractors, top down.
It's interesting to note that the UK retailers did not think the CIO could do small high impact business managed changes.
# on September 9, 2007 9:45 PM, andy mulholland said:
the comment on the retailers CIOs shows how mixed the reactions are as to what the role is as Tesco certainly show how to use IT and their CIO is a powerfull figure in business change.
i suspect it depends who you report to and how you are paid. reporting to the CFO and being paid on cost cutting will not get the same results as reporting to the CEO and being paid to 'change the game'
# on September 9, 2007 10:42 PM, Vikram Chandna said:
Actually my memory just got refreshed. I recalled time I worked with UK based international mutual fund giant. I recall a huge $50 million project was scrapped after years of dilly-dallying when the CFO took over IT department. It was then followed up by a project where small changes were made gradually to the system.
I wonder why is that IT wants to big project. I had quizzed senior IT management on that big bang approach and asked why we couldn't we replace in small phases. Their reasoning was that there are so many moving parts that they just couldn't imagine how they will keep all of them synchronized as different parts were upgraded.
I sometimes feel it's a curse to be a visionary or skillful. You then start seeing problems that other would not see. Probably business doesn't see any issues with making partial changes and when the problems indeed come, human ingenuity takes over and it is taken as success of the model.
Vikram/Philly/US
# on September 10, 2007 5:05 PM, andy mulholland said:
Go for skillful as at the end of the day to use requires skills and thats the value of us as a technology community!