CIOs must take lead or be left behind

Analyst Gartner sets out new role for CIOs

The increasing pace of change in business has put chief information officers (CIOs) in a position where they must lead the change or be get behind, says analyst Gartner.

Marianne Broadbent and Ellen Kitzis, Gartner members and authors of the newly published book, 'The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results', told delegates attending the analyst's annual Symposium IT Expo in Cannes this week that the CIO is playing an ever more strategically important role in business success.

As IT becomes more important in the day-to-day operation of business, the CIO's role has evolved from simply implementing and managing technology to driving its use in more innovative and competitive ways.

'There has been a change over the last two years where business has become disillusioned with the way IT has been implemented in companies,' said Broadbent.

'There is a much greater interest in how much IT means to the business now - all business processes are IT dependant. So CIOs must be leaders and not managers.'

They argue that CIOs can take on more of a leadership role when their decisions are based not purely on technology, but on the business processes that these choices support combined with sound financial management skills.

Once they have acquired these skills, CIOs will be able to evaluate strategic technology sourcing according to the core organisational competencies of the business.

'CIOs must either take ownership of this or get left behind. For example, the smart CIO will be the first to suggest outsourcers are moved up the value chain,' said Kitzis.

To obtain these qualities, the CIO must be equally able to shape and manage expectations of IT amongst third party technology suppliers as well as with their fellow executives.

Broadbent and Kitzis also believe an effective CIO would develop a consistent methodology for linking measures of business success to IT performance, and communicate their execution against those measures in business-relevant language.

They also suggest the most important areas where the CIO should take the lead are architectural development, business process enhancement and appropriate technology advancement, as well as supplier management.