CIOs Must Recognize When It's Time for a New IT Strategy
Ten years ago, most people could have only dreamed of the technology we have at our fingertips today. Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini put the pace of IT innovation in stark terms when he pointed out at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show that the technology used in today’s smartphones “has more computing power than all of NASA did when it put a man on the moon in 1969.”
We often marvel at the blistering pace of technological innovation, but how often do we think about innovating the way we support and manage these products and solutions?
For so long, the IT department, and by extension IT workers, have been seen as agents of stagnation, obstruction and bureaucracy. That’s why Mike Pearl, global cloud computing leader at PwC, has assembled on the CIO Dashboard six signs that every IT leader should notice before stagnation sets in for good.
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Redundancy Runs Rampant
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Employees View IT as an Over-Controlling Parent
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The Silence Between IT and Business Is Deafening
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You Update Your Code Every Leap Year
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Employees Are Kings of their Own Islands
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Technology Shopping Carts Are Overflowing with Gadgets
Pearl’s post elaborates on each item, with the overall message that IT needs to be more agile, collaborative and transparent. Be sure to read the full post on the CIO Dashboard, which was selected as one of our 50 Must-Read IT Blogs last year.
According to CIO’s 2014 State of the CIO, IT leaders hoping to transform business as usual in the new year have a lot of work ahead of them. The publication’s survey found that only 25 percent of CIOs were perceived as business peers or “game-changers.” The majority of CIOs said that their IT departments were seen as “cost centers” or “service providers,” which means they spend most of their time improving IT operations, controlling costs and managing IT crises.
By taking heed of Pearl’s signs, hopefully more CIOs can end up in the “game-changer” category and free themselves from being seen as IT EMTs.
