Re-educating the CIO

However, as the IT function becomes more central to business planning they have to attain qualifications which should include IT qualifications, a background in finance, marketing and strategic planning.

C-change

In today`s competitive business environment, a CIO who contributes to a business-oriented perspective on technology may be the difference between an average and a high-performance organisation.

Organisations that understand how to generate real business advantage from fusing technology, business process design and business relationships will outperform those that do not.

Playing a critical role in this transformation is an IT leader who is also a business leader that steers a mission-critical function, working side by side with business units, to help improve performance and efficiency.

This IT leader, who historically played an almost invisible role in business management, will also have to anchor a transformational vision throughout the organisation, overcome barriers to change, and build organisational support in the face of significant resistance.

Risk and reward

Keeping in mind that business processes that depend on IT are only as reliable and sustainable as the underlying IT infrastructure, it is imperative to note the considerable risks and strategic advantage of IT dependency.

The risks include IT failures having an increasingly significant impact on business processes, IT not being aligned with the changing needs of the business, and the cost of the supporting IT infrastructure exceeding the benefits achieved from the business process.

To manage these risks, and in order to better align business requirements with IT capabilities, and to deliver IT capabilities at an appropriate cost, IT leaders and organisations need to evaluate all IT activities from a business perspective.

They must shift from a reactive IT technology focus to an IT service model approach.

To successfully adopt a service perspective within the organisation, IT leaders need to organise and manage resources as a collection of processes or tasks that provide a specified service level to the IT customer.

This focus means there will be no more technology projects, only business initiatives. Therefore, IT leaders must be prepared to lead an IT strategy that drives business change and profits, and by implication possess strong business acumen to enable their team to align IT with overall corporate goals.

As the IT function becomes more central to business planning, IT leaders have to attain IT qualifications, with a multi-disciplinary background in finance, marketing and strategic planning.

One official language

Business service management (BSM) strategy enables IT to define services and measure those services in business terms.

It also allows business and IT leaders to speak a common language, and understand the impact IT has on the business. BSM is aligned to the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practice framework which enables organisations to quickly and efficiently implement the IT processes that support a service model.

The value of ITIL is provided by broad service delivery and support process recommendations, as well as by common definitions and terminology.

ITIL guidance allows companies to standardise and leverage recognised best practices across the IT organisation, thereby helping to align IT with business objectives and drive IT operational improvements.

The ITIL Manager`s certification - also known as the ITIL Master`s certification - as well as other ITIL certifications, equip IT leaders with skills of an IT analytical strategist qualified in industry best practice (instead of technical skills).

These types of certifications enable IT leaders to easily move into their new role and can be viewed as an MBA of the ICT industry.