To start within the mainframe computer era, the focus of IT was on automating the business processes and attain speed, efficiency and productivity. The CIO’s main role was to set up and keep the systems running with all the information captured, processed and maintained centrally with a high level of security and control.
This has changed drastically with the emergence of client-server technologies, which enabled distributed computing possible at department or business unit level.
The CIO had to face the challenge of integrating the silos of information and enterprise wide disparate systems to achieve required control and ensure data integrity. Again, the Internet and web technologies brought in explosive changes in access to information crossing the boundaries of time and geography which again led to centralization of systems and servers for better control and efficiencies.
Presently, the cycle has come back to decentralization and distributed computing again with the emergence of web 2.0 technologies and solutions. They have tempted the business unit managers to try varied IT products & services directly without going through the CIO route.
This has put the IT team and the CIO in an unenviable position of integrating and securing these disparate systems. It may be a matter of time to realize the pitfalls of this ad hoc approach and return to a holistic approach involving the enlightened CIO with deep enough insight into the business domain and processes.
In the absence of adequate digital literacy among the stakeholders, CIOs used to face resistance and impediments in the pursuit of e-transformation initiatives in their organizations.
This has changed to a great extent over the last decade with the proliferation of internet and mobile access, leading to consumerization of IT. However, the democratization of IT has brought its own challenges to the CIOs.
IT vendors increasingly target business unit managers pitching their products, which are procured independently by the users. Integration of many such systems and solutions so as to ensure their efficient, effective utilization and adequate security can be a nightmare for the CIO.
The traditional role of CIOs was to keep the systems up and running, managing IT budget and infrastructure, mainly as enablers and facilitators of IT.
In the new environment, he has to cross the boundaries and don new roles of aligning IT with business strategies, change business processes to achieve better efficiencies, innovate and create new IT driven products and services, manage the risks, etc.
He should lead the process change through IT initiatives across the organization rather than waiting for the leads from the business partners.
The new CIO will be the chief of infrastructure, integration, intelligence and innovation in the organization. This will put enormous pressure on him to perform and needs collaborative decision making, changed approach from build to buy for IT applications and solutions to reduce time to market. The emerging mobile workforce, proliferation of applications through web, cloud, social media, analytics and BYOD, etc., will pose big challenges to the CIO’s task of centralized coordination and ensuring security.
But this will provide the adaptive CIO with immense opportunities to innovate and proactively address expectations of all the stakeholders to bring about change, competitive advantage, new revenue streams and profitability.
The time has come for CIOs to be digital harvesters instead of tending IT.
KNC Nair is Group CIO, Muthoot Group