Different shades of the changing role of CIOs

By Mridul Srivastava, Head of India Marketing, and AMEA Lead, Customer Strategy, BT

The digital age is bringing in a lot of changes to the current role of CIOs today. They are now responsible for managing systems and collaborating with personnel across businesses. According to BT’s recent report ‘The digital CIO’, 72% of senior IT decision makers believe that the role of the CIO has become more central in the boardroom over the last two years. Demand for agility and flexibility is high and CIOs are being relied upon for their ability to straddle both traditional IT and the future innovation agenda.

The report also lays emphasis on the fact that digitalisation is rapidly transforming businesses. It also highlights that 76% of organisations across the world are working hard to adopt a multi-speed, or bimodal, approach to technology initiatives. This approach allows organisations to prioritise specific, progressive initiatives that deliver considerable benefits to businesses.

Champions of positive change.

Today, flexibility when working with new business models, faster adoption of technology trends and more agile working practices have become critical aspects of a CIO’s skill set.

Although the CIO’s role continues to change dramatically, the old practicalities and pressures remain. Close to two-thirds of senior IT decision makers feel that the CIO is forced to spend more time maintaining current IT systems than searching for new solutions. That is a drop from our research in 2014, when the figure was 74 % but shows that the CIO is still operating with one foot firmly trapped in the server room door.

Measurement of success has also shifted.  The recent study shows that it is now budget versus revenue growth year-on-year.  Data recoverability used to be among the top three, but has dropped out to make room for lowering operational costs.

Out of the silo and into the shadow

With the IT function becoming more horizontal across the organisation, the business partner model is creating a challenge for traditional IT. IT is increasingly expected to behave as an advisor to other departments, guiding them in their decisions to adopt IT software and ensuring security across all applications. One of its main tasks to ensure information is managed responsibly and consistently. Both, the CIO and the IT function are expected to behave as consultants across other parts of the organisation. At the same time, the consulting skillset is most lacking within the IT function according to 79% of senior IT decision makers.

As organisations are evolving, the rise of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud is offering organisations the opportunity to implement centralised management systems and roll out security across a number of applications using a single service. This gives the IT function relief from significant upgrade and maintenance responsibilities and means that systems are no longer bound to their physical constraints.

The digital CIO

Whilst majority of organisations now employ a Chief Digital Officer to drive digital initiatives, the responsibility for innovation still lies firmly with the CIO.  The Chief Information Officer still remains the driving force for innovation and creative disruption.  The positive shifts in CIO responsibilities show this with greater opportunity for them to add value to the business and have a stronger say in strategic decisions. Negative side of this however is an increase in time dedicated to dealing with corporate issues.

The digital world is becoming increasingly complex. To match this, organisations need to move quickly or face being left behind. It is now the role of the CIO to implement changes that will lead their organisation into its digital future. To do this, the digital CIOs must balance control and security with guidance if they need to be regarded as the facilitators of change.