Certification - September 2008 - (Page 28)

During the late ’90s, IT executives were the stars of many businesses, capturing the imaginations of their companies and customers by leading them in new directions with information technology. executives: compliance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and outsourcing. No longer impressed with IT’s nuts and bolts, CEOs, CFOs and COOs are more concerned these days with the cost of IT and its contribution to generating value. With little more to offer than gripes about interoperability and woes about the shortage of IT workers, many CIOs risk losing their seats at the executive table. Like Connery using Bond as leverage, today’s CIOs and other senior IT executives need to branch out from their traditional roles to become true information officers, the type who understands how technology applies to the financial, operational and competitive sides of the enterprise. Below are a few suggestions on how to fight the technology typecast. Business First Actors call this “sharpening their craft.” Business pundits call it “business-IT alignment.” What it means is understanding the basics of your industry and your organization first. Know your company’s customers, suppliers and competitors. Read broadly and deeply to be perceptive about management, markets, global culture and the rapid change that technology is driving in large part. Insert perceptive IT questions into your company’s customer satisfaction surveys and champion the insights. Try to get a seat at board meetings as a participant, adviser, observer or guest. Develop IT buy-in with your executive peers to make sure you have a clear IT governance strategy that the CFO and/or general counsel helped develop. This is the first step toward an IT vision that ties into business objectives, strategies and measurements. Refocus Your IT Organization Toward Business Value If you want to increase your standing in the enterprise, you have to show more than mere competence at what’s expected. For example, actor Ben Stiller gets a lot of work in Hollywood. But he doesn’t command Connery money. That’s because he’s essentially playing the same character in every movie. CIOs and their organizations should emulate Connery’s ability to evolve with the times and adapt to the changing needs of the audience. Fluid departmental time management is an excellent example of adapting to dynamic conditions. Time and resources always will be finite; what will change is how those hours and resources are deployed. Identify IT activities that have been commoditized. Some may be critical and require world-class performance, but they still will be commodities that offer no differentiating value to your company. Treat them as such. Outsource those activities to specialized providers, and then stack internal time 28 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE September 2008 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001774/

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Certification - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Virtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Troubleshooting Academic Connection What We Like Look Ahead So You Want to Be an IT Major The Title Is Information Officer… Chief Information Officer Interface Network Administration: Working From the Ground Up Inside Certification Ad Index Endtag

Certification - September 2008

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