The 'New' CIO

Pradeep Bindal The author is president, India Business, HCL Technologies

If there was an award for the fastest role transformation amongst the entire enterprise scenario, then without a doubt the CIOs Office would win it hands down! From Back Office Boys to Board Room Aspirants, CIOs across the world have travelled the longest journey in the shortest timeframe.

In the background of this tectonic shift, the Indian CIOs have emerged as powerful business decision influencers too as Indian companies make increasing use of technology to enable market re-alignment, faster time-to-market and foray into new markets and channels to adjust to the changing pattern of the new normal.

As this scenario takes a shape of its own and more and more CIOs take business roles and targets, a
re-configuration of a CIOs priorities to 3 critical factors is required.

Aligning IT with Business

With increased competition and changing customer and market dynamics, it has become important for organizations to align technology with core business objectives like customer acquisition and retention, faster launch of new products, cross selling and up selling, faster production, efficient inventory management, better governance, etc. CIOs are now looking to trim spending yet improving business performance. They are now an important member of boardroom meetings as they can align IT with core business objectives and help in accelerating the growth for the organization. Business intelligence, performance management, risk mitigation, cost optimization are some drivers of Business Aligned IT which are now getting maximum attention of a CIO.

Innovative Engagements

Another major trend is that Indian CIOs are hungry for innovations in partner engagements. Both in terms of pricing and delivery, CIOs are looking for something more than conventional engagements. Gone are the days when they used to think about IT service providers as just product/service vendors, they are looking for strategic partnerships now. In terms of pricing models, CIOs are keen to work in models like pay per use, gain-share, risk-share, and zero-cost transformations. These models help CIOs in cutting their capital expenditure and transforming the business. In terms of delivery, CIOs are looking for SLA based delivery where they have a clear visibility on performance of IT partners. Total outsourcing is also getting momentum as more and more CIOs are looking to transfer their assets and people to IT partners. It helps them in reducing complexity, cost and achieving unprecedented productivity.

Life Beyond IT

With a closer proximity to CEOs and CFOs, CIOs are now looking beyond IT to optimize cost and improve performance. They are looking at the peripheral layer around IT to explore pools of opportunities for operational efficiencies. One of those areas is print where CIOs see abundant opportunity to reduce current print cost by 20-25% and improve the sustainability factor of their organizations. Managed print services have no element of IT involved, but it is much talked about area within CIO communities as it helps in overall strategy of the organization. Another such area is telecom expense management. With the emergence of mobile devices, IP telephony and smarter phones, CIOs look to optimize telecom expenditure related to expense management and inventory management. This not only helps in cutting telecom overhead but also makes life easier for employees. Looking beyond IT will be more prominent in IT matured verticals like BFSI, manufacturing, and large business houses as compared to verticals like government and public sector organizations.

As a noted analyst recently said, successful CIOs of the future will be those who can help business executives see the difference between IT strategy and the use of IT to further business strategy. Those CIOs who continue to focus on just IT strategy in isolation from the business will find that their mandate will become all about cost-cutting and for the business savvy ones, well prepared to present to the board very soon!