Chief information officer

Chief information officer (CIO), or information technology (IT) director, is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals. The title of Chief Information Officer in Higher Education may be the highest ranking technology executive although depending on the institution, alternative titles are used to represent this position. Generally, the CIO reports to the chief executive officer, chief operations officer or chief financial officer. In military organizations, they report to the commanding officer.

CIO

Information technology and its systems have become so important that the CIO has come to be viewed in many organizations as the key contributor in formulating strategic goals for an organization. The CIO manages the implementation of the useful technology to increase information accessibility and integrated systems management. As a comparison, where the CIO adapts systems through the use of existing technologies, chief technology officer develops new technologies to expand corporate technological capabilities. When both positions are present in an organization, the CIO is generally responsible for processes and practices supporting the flow of information, whereas the CTO is generally responsible for technology infrastructure.

CIO magazine's "State of the CIO 2008" survey asked 558 IT leaders who they report to. The results were: CEO (41%), CFO (23%), COO (16%), Corporate CIO (7%) and Other (13%).^[1]

Information technology

The prominence of the CIO position has risen greatly as information, and the information technology that drives it, has become an increasingly important part of the modern organization. The CIO may be a member of the executive committee of an organization, and/or may often be required to engage at board level depending on the nature of the organization and its operating structure and governance environment. No specific qualification are intrinsic of the CIO position, though the typical candidate may have expertise in a number of technological fields - computer science, software engineering, or information systems. Many candidates have Master of Business Administration or Master of Science in Management degrees.^[2] More recently CIOs' leadership capabilities, business acumen and strategic perspectives have taken precedence over technical skills. It is now quite common for CIOs to be appointed from the business side of the organization, especially if they have project management skills.

In 2007 a survey amongst CIOs by CIO magazine in the UK discovered that their top 10 concerns were: people leadership, managing budgets, business alignment, infrastructure refresh, security, compliance, resource management, managing customers, managing change and board politics.^[3]

In 2010, Gartner Executive Programs conducted a global CIO survey and received responses from 2,014 CIOs from 50 countries and 38 industries. ^[4] Gartner reported that the survey results indicated that the top ten technology priorities for CIOs for 2011 were cloud computing, virtualization, mobile technologies, IT management, business intelligence, networking, voice and data communications, enterprise applications, collaboration technologies, infrastructure, and Web 2.0.

Typically, a CIO is involved with driving the analysis and re-engineering of existing business processes, identifying and developing the capability to use new tools, reshaping the enterprise's physical infrastructure and network access, and with identifying and exploiting the enterprise's knowledge resources. Many CIOs head the enterprise's efforts to integrate the Internet into both its long-term strategy and its immediate business plans. CIO's are often tasked with either driving or heading up crucial IT projects which are essential to the strategic and operational objectives of an organisation. A good example of this would be the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system which typically has wide-ranging implications for most organizations. The CIO is evolving into a role where he/she is creating and monitoring business value from IT assets, to the point where corporate strategist Chris Potts suggests in the novel FruITion that the Chief Information Officer (CIO) be replaced with Chief Internal Investments Officer (CIIO).^[5]

Another way that the CIO role is changing is an increased focus on service management.^[6] As SaaS, IaaS, BPO and other more flexible value delivery techniques are brought into organizations the CIO usually functions as a 3rd party manager for the organization. In essence, a CIO in the modern organization is required to possess business skills and the ability to relate to the organization as a whole, as opposed to being a technological expert with limited functional business expertise. The CIO position is as much about anticipating trends in the market place with regards to technology as it is about ensuring that the business navigates these trends through expert guidance and proper strategic IT planning that is aligned to the corporate strategy of the organization.

See also

• Fractional CIO
• Chief Information Officer in Higher Education
• Chief technology officer
• Geostationary Information Officer
• IT Governance
• IT Strategy

References

1. ^ "State of the CIO 2008 Data Shows CIO Salaries, Influence Rising". CIO. http://www.cio.com/article/147950/_State_of_the_CIO_2008_Data_Shows_CIO_Salaries_Influence_Rising. Retrieved 27 February 2010. 
2. ^ Should You Get an MBA? - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership
3. ^ Granger: The final word - CIO UK Magazine
4. ^ "Gartner Executive Programs Worldwide Survey of More Than 2,000 CIOs Identifies Cloud Computing as Top Technology Priority for CIOs in 2011". Gartner. http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1526414. Retrieved 23 March 2011. 
5. ^ fruITion: Creating the Ultimate Corporate Strategy for Information Technology, Chris Potts, Technics Publications, LLC 2008
6. ^ CIO Magazine: Recession Shifts IT Service Management into Fast Lane

External links

• US Federal CIO Council
• UK Government - CIO Council Dead link as on 4th Nov 2010, unable to find new official site.
• The Chief Information Officer Concept in E-government: Lessons for Developing Countries. By D.C. Misra. On United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs WebBoard.