BANGALORE, INDIA: CIOL's C-Change 2009 is just around the corner! But, so is the new year!

We have had a tough year, which is slowly on its way out! Is that a time for the CIO community to heave a sigh of relief? Or, is it a time for them to reflect and then look ahead at what could be the pressing issues during 2009!

I adopt the later slant!

We spoke with some CIOs about what could be the key challenges for them in the year ahead. Here are some impressions on those challenges.

V.S. Manikkam, Head, IT, Henkel Information Technology
1. Consolidation: Centralizing; consolidating services, operations, resources and infrastructure.
2. Shared Services: Business models, sharing resources, services and infrastructure.
3. Budget and Cost Control: Managing budget reduction, strategies for savings, reducing or avoiding costs; activity based costing.
4. Security: Security safeguards, enterprise policies, data protection and insider threat.
5. Electronic Records/Digital Preservation/E-Discovery: Strategies, policies, legal issues, opportunities for shared services and emergency preparedness.
6. ERP Strategy: Acquisition, implementation, expansion and upgrade.
7. Green IT: Policies, energy efficiency, power management, green procurement and e-waste.
8. Transparency: Open government, performance measures and data, and accountability.
9. Health Information Technology: Assessment, partnering and implementation.
10. Governance: Improving IT and data governance.

Sandeep Kothari, AGM-IT, The Bombay Store

1. Hiring and retaining skilled workers.
2. Aligning information technology and mission goals.
3. Funding IT programs and projects.
4. Using IT to improve service to customers/stakeholders/citizens.
5. Building effective relationships with senior agency leaders.
6. Managing or replacing older systems.
7. Formulating or implementing an enterprise architecture.
8. Implementing and controlling IT capital planning and investment across the agency.
9. Balancing information sharing and security/privacy.
10. Consolidating common IT business/mission functions.

 
As usual, we would love to hear from the CIO community about these challenges. And, we'd love to hear their views during the forthcoming C-Change 2009.