User:Superben9/The future of the chief information officer

Many large organizations have been developing the role of the chief information officer role within the United States for the past thirty years. The term chief information officer(CIO) was coined around 1981 and the role was primarily responsible for the maintenance and operation of the IT infrastructure. Almost 30 years later the role has grown to focus not only the maintenance and operation of the IT infrastructure but now includes a significant understanding on business strategy.

A CIO’s must learn to maintain a balance between technical innovations and sound business sense. This balance must be maintained if the role is to stay at the forefront of the organization. If a CIO shifts too far into the technical area then his or her contributions to the business will be seen as commodity similar to the persons responsible for the electricity or plumbing. Whereas, if a CIO shifts too far into the business arena then he will find that he is encroaching into the responsibility of his C-level counterparts. As the role of the CIO changes so do the challenges. The following are some of the future challenges affecting CIO’s within large organizations.

• Including managing the return on investments of the investment portfolio for the information technology area. CIO is responsible for insuring the value both in the short and long term produced by the information technology area generates more than the capital invested.

• Providing a secure computing experience for both customers and employees that is reliable and fast

• Serving as a champion for innovation that will increase profit and reduce cost

• Insuring integration and interoperability within the software, hardware, employees and customers is seamless. The IT environment must be share common goals and initiatives and eliminate duplication of efforts

• Defining a method to evaluate the performance of the environment from different perspectives including customers, employees and other businesses that utilize your services.

• Establishing a rewarding work environment to maintain people and knowledge

• Increasing focus and defining and understanding the different types of customers and meeting their needs.

• Creating an Enterprise architecture that encompasses both the systems and software and how they relate to business deliverables. • Understanding of the market and the industry and passing on the importance of learning markets and industry IT employees.