The days when IT was an afterthought are over and done and chief information officers (CIOs) need to become actively involved in business processes.
That’s the conclusion of a report from Gartner. Cassio Dreyfuss, research vice president said: “Over time, IT has graduated from being a support tool to being a business enabling and a business creation tool. Under that much broader and inclusive perspective, it makes more sense to talk about IT-related expenditures in each and every business initiative and respective budget. In this way, the CIO is challenged to adopt a higher profile and actively engage in opportunities to influence IT decisions in business budgets.”
While each organisation has its own set of processes, the CIO has a unique contribution for organisations of all sizes but must have a handle on the business challenges and style of each organisation.
A CIO needs to get “intensely” involved with budget decisions and can bring several skills to these discussions.
He or she needs extensive knowledge of the information used in an organisation and who uses what information, when, how and with what objective. It’s also important to understand the business processes and master how all that information as well as having a comprehensive and educated perspective on technology of all types.
