Given the connectedness of the world today, CIOs are under increased pressure to evolve as business needs change faster than before. In many respects, this has resulted in them becoming the lynchpins of the modern organisation.
Jessie Rudd, BI consultant at PBT Group, comments: “The traditional CIO was a person who could ensure that the IT department does its job of supporting and rolling out technology infrastructure.
“Often, the position was filled by the most senior ‘techie’ in the organisation with little thought given to the broader strategy of the organisation. Those CIOs who were the best at their jobs were the ones who could implement large-scale enterprise systems with the least amount of disruption on daily operations.
“The past decade, however has seen this starting to change. With the consumerisation of technology, people have become more at ease with technology and are managing more of their systems themselves than a few years ago.”
The growth of mobile apps and cloud services offerings (think Gmail, Dropbox, Office 365, and so on) mean employees are far more comfortable in installing solutions that work for them. These comfort levels extend to both their personal as well as their professional lives. This also brings a lack of patience with the IT department that, for security best practice, cannot roll out new solutions on a whim.
Rudd adds: “So what does this mean for the CIO? For one, there is still an expectation by other C-suite executives that the person must fulfil all the traditional responsibilities of the position. But this comes with the added pressure of driving innovation in the organisation and looking at the best solutions to drive the company forward. The CIO therefore needs to juggle the infrastructure provider role with one of being a visionary for the organisation and identifying solutions that best fit into the company strategy for success.”
It is no longer good enough to leverage off existing trends such as cloud computing, big data, and social networking. “The connected CIO needs to be able to identify those areas where the business needs to innovate and give themselves the competitive edge. Think for example how Bitcoin could be leveraged in the business environment. Or how about the impact that the Internet of Things will have on product development? Even in South Africa, areas like 3D printing and more advanced business analytics need to be explored to remain at the cutting-edge of technology,” adds Rudd.
But it is not simply a case of picking a trend that is likely to gain local traction and integrating that into the business. The CIO needs to have an integral understanding of where the business is going and what its future needs will be.
“Being compliant with legislation and ensuring the integrity of existing systems become even more essential in such a dynamic and fluid business landscape. The CIO has to be in a position where he or she can straddle both the immediate operational requirements and the forward-thinking competitive needs,” says Rudd.
However, despite the challenges that this presents to the modern CIO, it also offers numerous opportunities and areas to differentiate. Having more of a free scope to innovate and enforce change within the organisation means the CIO will be much more significant to company strategy than at any time in the past.
“The CIOs who are open to embracing this change and willing to meet this evolution head on will be the ones that drive success for the organisation. After all, the alternative is one of stagnation and being left behind in a fast-moving environment that the company might never be able to catch up on.”
