EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
SANTHOSH RAO , SENIOR RESEARCH DIRECTOR ,
ANALYST , GARTNER
The role of the CIO continues to be central . In mature markets , we ’ re seeing new roles emerge which are in some sense parallel to what the CIO does such as chief digital officer who are championing Digital Transformation activities . They are also supported by the CIO in some ways . In the Middle East , the CIO is viewed as the forefront in Digital Transformation , although some leading organisations are beginning to create new roles . The role of the CIO continues to be very influential in the general direction that the organisation wants to take , from a technology standpoint – which technologies to invest in and how they best align to business outcomes , more specifically creation of new revenue opportunities and optimising existing processes .
I believe the number one challenge post-COVID is the whole remote work and hybrid model situation . This is something that a lot of CIOs had to work on an urgent basis . Most CIOs have figured it out and are past that now and have built an infrastructure that has adapted to this new norm . The ever green and perennial challenge
I believe the number one challenge post-COVID is the whole remote work and hybrid model situation .
This is something that a lot of CIOs had to work on an urgent basis .
that a lot of CIOs face here are the cybersecurity risks . They continue to re-evaluate that every year , while working with security teams and risk and compliance teams to ensure that there are no gaps in the architecture and process .
At the same time , the CIO is expected to contribute to Digital Transformation activities of the enterprise but unfortunately , the existing IT team and the way it is setup is not adequate to address those needs . There ’ s still a skills gap that the CIO is grappling with . This should not be an inhibitor , the CIO must formulae strategic partnerships with external service providers to offset this gap .
That aside , a majority of the time is spent on keeping the lights on . Ensuring that the application and underlying infrastructure addresses service level requirements leaves little bandwidth for transformational activities .
The first pitfall I continue to see in the enterprise space is CIOs is aligning the right resources during both conceptualisation and execution of a Digital Transformation project . Data projects such as AI , IoT and others require different technical and mindset . The second is if direction or roadmap for Digital Transformation itself is not very clear , then the CIO is not enabled enough to address those problems and challenges through technology . Businesses should have the discipline to identify the top three or four use cases or business problems that can be solved through technology . They must then ascertain the outcome , ROI and roadmap for delivery . Unfortunately , most enterprises have moving targets and so technology has seldom solved the problem .
To accelerate new application development and delivery , CIOs must have a cloud first strategy . This will enable IT to lower CAPEX costs . CIOs must also look at continuously optimising infrastructure and software licensing cost by working with vendors and focus on creating an efficient infrastructure with a focus on automation . They must encourage IT teams to ramp up their automation skills by challenging them constantly with tasks that are automatable .
Remember , the traditional way the IT teams are structured is no longer relevant when it comes to Digital Transformation and how companies are moving forward .
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