Tuesday, December 13, 2011
What does a CIO do all day?
Does you know what a CIO does all day? Not attempting to be sarcastic but the simple fact that many people in IT can't answer this question with any level of integrity is most certainly problematic...
If you listen to the vendor-controlled media, you would think the only thing they do is listen to thinly veiled PowerPoint pitches from consulting firms and industry analysts sprinkled with a few software purchases. There is more to the job of being CIO than simply best practices in management by magazine.
Is the job of the CIO to push back? When does this mean being an impediment to embracing advances in technology? The CIO must insure new technology will really make things things more efficient. Imagine a world where if everything sold by software vendors were true. You would have achieved a combined 1m % ROI and could run an entire IT department for a large corporation with just one person working part-time but we all know that this simply isn't true.
I am frustrated with vendors and their pitches to save money. Just because something saves money doesn’t mean you buy a new one each year. Imagine a car with greater gas than your current car. If you bought that new car for an extra $5,000.00, you must drive it enough so you actually get the $5,000.00 savings. If you replace it yearly, you never get enough savings to justify the purchase.
So at some level, I think the job of the CIO is to exercise fiscal prudence especially in shops where Enterprise Architects are too busy being conned to pay attention to the next wave of technology. After all, in order for IT to remain viable, it must become business aligned and sadly, most enterprise architects are asleep at the wheel in this regard.
| | View blog reactionsIf you listen to the vendor-controlled media, you would think the only thing they do is listen to thinly veiled PowerPoint pitches from consulting firms and industry analysts sprinkled with a few software purchases. There is more to the job of being CIO than simply best practices in management by magazine.
Is the job of the CIO to push back? When does this mean being an impediment to embracing advances in technology? The CIO must insure new technology will really make things things more efficient. Imagine a world where if everything sold by software vendors were true. You would have achieved a combined 1m % ROI and could run an entire IT department for a large corporation with just one person working part-time but we all know that this simply isn't true.
I am frustrated with vendors and their pitches to save money. Just because something saves money doesn’t mean you buy a new one each year. Imagine a car with greater gas than your current car. If you bought that new car for an extra $5,000.00, you must drive it enough so you actually get the $5,000.00 savings. If you replace it yearly, you never get enough savings to justify the purchase.
So at some level, I think the job of the CIO is to exercise fiscal prudence especially in shops where Enterprise Architects are too busy being conned to pay attention to the next wave of technology. After all, in order for IT to remain viable, it must become business aligned and sadly, most enterprise architects are asleep at the wheel in this regard.
