Wednesday, 26 March 2014 00:54
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We are about supporting ICT – Information Communication Technology – at multiple spheres. At the top of the ladder or at the bottom of the ladder, professionals have to be supported to grow professionally and enhance their capabilities. In that sense even supporting and enriching Chief Information Officers (CIO) is important.
The Chief Information Officer, commonly known as the CIO, is the job role of the most senior executive in an organisation responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support organisational goals. The CIO manages the implementation of the useful technology to increase information accessibility and integrated systems management.
Generally, the CIO reports to the CEO, COO or the CFO. 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%).
But how has this job role evolved in Sri Lanka? What are the challenges faced and how can we move forward?
The CIO Chapter of CSSL recently had its inaugural meeting moderated by Rohan Muttiah, CIO of Bank of Ceylon PLC.
“What is strategy?” Rohan asked, as a room full of CIOs listened quietly. “Do we use this term too often that it has lost its credibility?”
The goal of any organisation is profit. “If you’re a not-for-profit organisation,” said Rohan, answering a question from the audience, “your profit is not necessarily monetary”. To achieve this goal, every organisation has or should have a strategy. “Why then aren’t we aligned to this strategy?” asked Rohan, referring to all CIOs.
“We need to look at the bigger picture. CIOs have a larger responsibility than just repairing computers. We need to become like CFOs who report directly to CEOs, for that we need to talk the language that CEOs speak,” explained Rohan, giving an example of how to find ways to reduce cost and show more efficiency to CEOs.
“We should also be open to ideas and receptive to changes,” he warned, “If we continue to safeguard our domain, someone else will come by and win the heart of the CEO by having superior knowledge.” These are the steps forward to being recognised as a prominent role in achieving organisational strategies.
“The fundamental problem is jargon,” was one opinion expressed by a member of the audience. He added: “CIOs talk a lot in technical terms and most of the CEOs has no clue what CIOs are talking about. Living in a culture where bosses are supposed to know everything, CEOs tend not to ask questions and as a result no decisions are taken forward. This is why CIOs are eventually sidelined and CFOs for instance gain prominence.”
In 2012, Gartner Executive Programs conducted a global CIO survey and received responses from 2,053 CIOs from 41 countries and 36 industries. Gartner reported that survey results indicated that the top 10 technology priorities for CIOs for 2013 were analytics and business intelligence, mobile technologies, cloud computing, collaboration technologies, legacy modernisation, IT management, customer relationship management, virtualisation, security, and enterprise resource planning.
CSSL hopes to take these discussions forward and educate CIOs of business needs today.
The purpose of forming CSSL chapters such as the CIO Forum is to expand its membership and to make more opportunities available for the members to contribute to the development of the ICT profession.
