How CIOs can drive business value now

BANGALORE, INDIA: CIOs are in the unique position of having tentacles into the entire organization. This level of connection enables them to weigh the overall business needs with individual user needs, implementing the best tools for the entire team and ensuring efficiency. Faced with striking the balance between what's best for the business and its users, there are four key considerations for CIOs looking to drive business value for their organizations.

1)Own the enterprise cloud computing strategy

A vexing problem for many CIOs is cloud sprawl, a situation created by the rapidly increasing use of public cloud services and applications such as file sharing services by employees or business units within a company, often without permission from the IT department. In fact, a recent cloud sprawl survey we did found 52 percent of IT professionals believe cloud sprawl negatively impacts IT operations and budget.

CIOs today are being confronted with BYOD issues, as well as business units introducing unapproved apps into the enterprise. Many employees are not fully aware of the impact of cloud sprawl to the enterprise. To combat this knowledge gap, CIOs need to understand how the ever-increasing use of cloud services affects the most critical factors of their IT infrastructure and services so they may educate users accordingly.

Equally important, CIOs must also understand the technology and services their business units want and how they can deliver on those requests to ensure employee satisfaction while maintaining security standards.

2)Embrace enterprise apps

You've probably heard the phrase, "there's an app for that." The proliferation of apps within the enterprise often creates security issues, incompatibility, redundancies and confusion. To avoid these complications, CIOs are looking for apps that can be used across the enterprise. While some departments require distinct software, whenever possible, general business apps should be used across the enterprise. For example, messaging systems such as Microsoft Lync, Skype, or Trillian should be standardized, so that only one is used across the organization.

Additionally, where distinct software is required, considerations should be made for integration to other systems within the enterprise. For example, IT may need to track subscription and invoicing information for chargebacks for virtual machines. Instead of maintaining dual accounting mechanisms IT should look to integrate with the existing accounting system.

To ensure the use of enterprise apps, organizations are beginning to implement enterprise application stores similar to commercial app stores employees are already accustomed to. In fact, our enterprise IT survey showed 44 percent of corporate IT leaders have deployed or are planning to deploy an enterprise application store in the next 12 months. The survey found benefits of an enterprise app store include increased control over application usage, reduced risk, greater control over software expenditures, and increased value delivered by the application portfolio.

3)Consolidate with technology already in house

With lack of integration plaguing many organizations today, business processes are typically siloed with an IT solution targeted toward each. CIOs are turning to enterprise service catalogs to act as a single pane of glass to consolidate and provide access to all the different applications available in-house. This enables users to quickly locate all of an organization's offerings, thus preventing the purchase of redundant applications. It gives CIOs a better handle on the technology being used and requested by their customers, enabling IT to provide better service and support for all applications being utilized. Additionally, an enterprise service catalog provides a vehicle for ensuring that the necessary integrations are in place to guarantee smooth process orchestration among the various departments, breaking down those silos while streamlines processes, increasing efficiency, and improving customer service levels.

4)Implement the entire package (ITaaS)

IT as a Service (ITaaS) is a rising model where the IT department of an enterprise acts and operates as a distinct business entity for the other line of businesses within the enterprise. Delivering everything a department needs, from procurement to implementation to ongoing support, can be a daunting task. As departments expand, IT must scale to accommodate increasing requests.

From initial need to full implementation and delivery, departments are expecting full IT lifecycle management. Thanks to the consumer experience of easily finding, ordering and receiving items from tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, Dell and Boxx, business users have come to expect more than just the immediate technology need, but also superior service and customer support from IT.

To achieve this level of service and support, IT must understand their customer's needs early and work closely with the customer throughout the timeframe of the engagement. For example, when a business marketing campaign is drawing to a close, rather than automatically closing the campaign's IT solution of a virtual machine, IT should confirm with the business unit first. Maintaining a proactive attitude of putting the customer first is key in meeting business user expectations. Rather than focusing on delivering a single item or service, IT must become service oriented.

Fifty one percent of the respondents who participated in our enterprise IT survey believe ITaaS will bring cost savings to their organization. According to the survey, other benefits of ITaaS include faster service delivery (72 percent), better alignment between IT and lines of business (52 percent) reduced cost (49 percent) and improved IT security/compliance (48 percent).

Striking the balance

CIOs play a critical leadership role within the organization and are positioned to guide technology decisions. In fact, 58 percent of corporate IT leaders cited that CIOs lead by showing how IT can impact the organization both positively and negatively. Similarly, 60 percent of corporate IT leaders responded that CIOs direct and restate the use of technology.

CIOs today are expected to juggle organizational needs with department needs, all while ensuring business value increases. To do this, the CIO should have a grasp on the existing technology in place as well as emerging tools to effectively recommend and implement technology that drive business value. Following the four considerations outlined above, CIOs are positioned to avoid pitfalls that are growing concerns for many organizations. Enlisting an enterprise service catalog delivers numerous benefits to the organization, including empowering business users to find and request needed services internally.

(The author is Director of Product Solutions for PMG, a software company)