Driving Strategic Value Through IT

Anyone working in information technology today wants the opportunity to create and enable lasting value. The CIO helps define those opportunities and turn them into realities. IT is used for not only enabling the business process through automation but also helping in standardisation and sustaining the benefits over the lifecycle. IT has transformed the businesses in many industries for more growth and profitability.

Looking back, in eighties and nineties, IT was used for transaction processing. Users from Accounts, Sales, and Production would provide or key-in the data into the system and get the reports back in batch mode and act upon them. During late nineties and in early 2000, on adoption of ERP, IT was used more as business process enabler for automation and to increase productivity. No business can get content with headcount optimisation only. Here, a question arises as to how to exploit IT as strategic enabler and driver of business results.

In any organisation, IT has solid footprint in every function and process. The IT team designs the process and maintains it. This gives them an opportunity to access and provide all information to the organisation. The CIO has a role similar to the air traffic controller of an airport and this position gives him an opportunity to report, alert, guide and drive fellow CXOs in business results achievement and thereby enable and drive the business strategy. CEO is the only person other than CIO who has a full view of the organisation and the CIO has the privilege of providing information to CEO. If IT has to assume the responsibility of driving business targets, Team IT should go beyond technology and get hooked in to the business. The IT team members should develop interest in getting deep into the business details and interpret the data.

The future looks bright for CIOs to assume new responsibilities. The CIO is a combination of CTO, CSO, CAO (Chief Analyst Officer) and much more.