“Chapter 1. IS in Business”{0}
The New New CIO Role: Big Changes Ahead
The New New CIO Role: Big Changes Ahead is an article about the up and coming changes for the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) as well as the difficulties that arise from being a CIO. Changes are being made that make it impossible for CIO’s to stay in the background and only take part in IT programs. If CIO’s do not start partaking in strategic planning and customer service areas they will be fired. “The CIO extreme makeover necessitated right now isn’t a mere cosmetic rehab, however. It will demand a mighty effort from those IT leaders whose comfort zone involves four walls, lots of servers and voluminous air-conditioning” (Wailgum, 2010). According to this article the new role as CIO is unlike anything ever seen.
While the article states the changes being made to the role of CIO, it also talks about the difficulty of being a CIO. Everyone acknowledges that the role of CIO or IT representative is a necessity in business today but being a CIO is not an enjoyable position. IT administrators are now being required to take part in the “strategic planning’ of their businesses as well as keeping up with all IT management and operations. “If the perception is that IT can’t even keep the trains running on time, then there’s no way that CIO will ever be considered a business leader by peers.” (Wailgum, 2010) The role of CIO is evolving and is caught between being a leader in the company and being pegged as the geeks of technology. With all of these conflicting components, it is not desirable to be a CIO. “…the CIO role continues to suffer from a multiple personality disorder of sorts. At one moment CIOs must understand and capably discuss the strategic direction of their company and, seconds later, consider a complex technical problem with costly ramifications” (Wailgum, 2010). The role of CIO or its equivalent is necessary within a company for success but the actual position is not as exciting as being a Chief Information Officer might seem.
I chose this article because chapter 1 states how important these IT positions are within a company as they try to unite the business portion and IT portion of a company. This article shows that steps are being taken to make IT administrators more involved in the business part of the company as well as showing that this job has difficult aspects to deal with. Our textbook states that the role of CIO is to “1) overseeing all uses of information technology and 2) ensuring the strategic alignment of IT with business goals and objectives” (Baltzan, 2010). I liked this article because it stated some of the difficulties that arise from the responsibilities the textbook outlines for the CIO.
The idea of “the new new CIO role” (Wailgum, 2010) has the hope of effectively connecting IT and business aspects of any company
Baltzan, P. (2010). M Information Systems. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Wailgum, T. (2010, August 20). The New New CIO Role: Big Changes Ahead. Retrieved August 25, 2010, from CIO.com: http://www.cio.com/article/603965/The_New_New_CIO_Role_Big_Changes_Ahead?page=1&taxonomyId=3000