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CIOs need to be transformational: Gartner

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CIOL Bureau
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MUMBAI, INDIA: In recent years, enterprises across the world have started to follow the 'do more with less' mantra. Given the global macro economic situation which is giving a feel of uncertainty to businesses, the enchanting of mantra and its practice appears healthy and positive.

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Industry analysts, however, pointed out that although the mantra sounds good and positive, it is certainly bringing new set of challenges for CIOs. And putting that mantra into practice would require CIOs to come out of the mould of 'tech heads' and transform themselves into the dynamic role of 'business heads'

Also read: CIO's role is not about SAP and Oracle

“IT cost will rise by 1-1.5 per cent globally. However, it will not reflect in the IT budgets of enterprises as such. CIOs will have to work with the same budgets and find ways to reduce the cost by innovating and using new IT architecture,” said Dale Kutnick, Gartner Research's senior vice president and global head of Gartner Executive Programs.

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But what made the 'do more with less' mantra so popular across enterprises? “During the recent economic slow down, many enterprises were able to function efficiently, even with their available resources, and their IT systems didn't get disrupted or failed. As a result, the companies are now not willing to increase or spend more on IT,” Kutnick noted.

According to Kutnick, today's CIOs are facing internal as well as external pressures. “They have to deal with the limited resources and IT budgets internally. At the same time, externally, the consumerization of technology has brought in new devices and technology within the organization which has further boosted the demands for information access.”

Also read: The changing role of the CIO

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“In addition, many organizations are outsourcing key business functions, making his life harder. Hence the situation demands a new kind of IT architecture to meet these IT requirements, and CIOs will need to design a new network architecture and data centers in accordance with the new devices and technologies,” Kutnick explained.

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He further pointed out that CIOs should also address the core issue of security which will come along with the devices and technologies such as enterprise mobility, social media, cloud and virtualization, as enterprises are incorporating mobile devices, virtual devices and networks that offer the 'work-from-home' facility to their staff.

But a CIO's role does not end just by meeting those challenges and demands. It is just a part of his responsibilities, as enterprises expect higher utilization of available resources including IT as well as workforce, along with cost reductions.

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“Most organizations have an average resource utilization rate of around 50-60 per cent, but to go beyond the 60 per cent usage rate, organizations need to strive for innovation. And that is another key challenge before the CIO,” Kutnick observed.

“In order to address these challenges and demands”, he continued, “CIOs need to be transformational so that they can think and act from a business perspective and not just IT. They have to develop more business understanding and entrepreneur skills to align IT with the business requirements,” he added.

Also read: It is time to reward CIO's talents

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For instance, while making a decision between outsourcing any business function or opting for cloud-based services, the CIO needs to think in a business point of view, keeping in mind the cost and time factors and its overall impact on business continuity.

A CIO is an integral part of the organization, so the amount of responsibilities they carry on their shoulders are highly reflected in their remunerations.

Today, accountability and performance are considered the key parameters for growth and a CIOs' variable pay revolves highly around these factors.

“The variable pay will highly depend on their (CIOs) performance in helping develop the business in new markets, helping organization in retaining and getting new clients as well as exploring markets in new geographies. CIOs job will no longer remain restricted to IT projects but will include business processes,” Kutnick concluded.