Tech Economics at CIO Summit, America

WESTPORT: Despite the challenges imposed by the global economic downturn, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and other senior IT leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to leverage existing information technology investments to lower their organizations overall operating expenses, expressed Dr. Howard Rubin, president and CEO of Rubin Worldwide in Pound Ridge, N.Y at the recent CIO Summit of America.

As per a press release Rubin, who is also professor emeritus of Hunter College of the City University of New York, drew upon his benchmarking expertise to point out several examples of how organizations can transform their fixed costs to variable costs and by doing so lower their IT cost of goods to help drive operational improvements.

Organizations that employ an optimal mix of technology investments to grow and protect their revenues and to reduce and avoid costs at a managed level of risk, can outperform their peers by three to five per cent of pre-tax profit margins, he stressed.

“We’re in the age of discovery in technology economics,” says Rubin. “It’s a burgeoning field and there are tremendous opportunities for those who leverage them.”

The event focused on strategies and best practices designed to help organizations address the current financial crisis and prepare business and IT for the new economy, and was organized by HMG Strategy, LLC, and a Westport, CT-based firm.

Forward-thinking CIOs such as Todd Thompson was heard exploring those types of opportunities. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., where Thompson oversees global IT, is starting a pilot program among its European hotels to utilize a centrally hosted property management system as part of its efforts to reduce costs and move the systems out of the hotels themselves, he said.