The role of the CIO is changing. To deliver digital transformation — applying new technologies to radically improve or invent products, services and business models — the CIO needs to evolve from order taker to innovator.
Ten or fifteen years ago, we CIOs had a horizontal responsibility and a horizontal view of the business. The focus was primarily internal: How could IT give various business units what they were asking for.
We were essentially a service organization. We waited for businesses to come to us with requests while spending the bulk of our time supporting users and maintaining systems.
But today CIOs are being asked to challenge the organization. They’re being asked to consult with other C-suite leaders and to come up with initiatives and ideas to make the business better and build the brand. They need to be knowledgeable not just about proven technologies — the safe bets that can keep the lights on — but also about the cutting edge technologies that can deliver competitive advantage.
A recent Dell EMC/Forbes Insights survey gives us some hard numbers about this change. When asked how IT transformation had affected the role of the CIO:
Think of this: Now, CIOs are viewed as a strategic adviser to business executives. And they are helping develop new competitive opportunities. That is a far cry from serving in a supporting role to the business as a service center.
Two of the ways this changes the CIO’s role have to do with data and agile development.
It’s hard to innovate if you don’t know what’s working and what’s not. And data silos are one of the challenges for CIOs looking to step into the role of organizational change agent.
The web team holds the digital analytics data. The finance department has budget data in an ERP system. The sales and marketing teams have all customer info in customer relationship management and marketing automation tools. But the organization lacks the centralized access to data needed to make meaningful strategic decisions.
It’s not just knowing what the sales numbers are. It’s understanding how, why and where customers are using specific products and services. It’s not just having a data dashboard for this or that application. It’s being able to collect data that you know is consistent and looking at the bigger picture of the organization’s business model and operations.
