Chief Information Officer Career Analysis

When I think about my career in the next 10 to 15 years I envision myself being in a chief information officer (CIO) role. As I have worked through a number of roles in my career from PC support to Systems Consultant then to Network Administrator and now as Manager of Information Technology I see the CIO role as a clear path of progression for my career. The CIO role is a senior executive level position that is responsible for all information technology functions along with developing the strategic and long term information technology goals for the organization based on the company’s strategic and long term goals.
The CIO of today performs a number of tasks, one of which is to provide strategic direction “A chief information officer works with
other members of the executive team to identify how information technology can help the company achieve its business and financial goals. Technology can streamline business processes, increase employee productivity and improve the quality of customer service, for example. The CIO develops a strategy to achieve those business goals and recommends investments that will deliver measurable results, such as a 2 percent improvement in productivity or a 3 percent reduction in order-processing costs” (Linton, 2014).
When developing the strategic directions the CIO must make a judgement on what strategic initiatives will have the greatest effect on the business goals. Another important task of the CIO is the building, developing, and leading of strong teams that are able to develop solutions to drive the information technology department’s strategic goals within their budget and resources limitations. Information technology teams that are able to develop and implement solutions to drive the company’s strategic needs are a sign of the CIO’s ability to build and develop the correct people for the organization, thus it is one of the most important jobs of the CIO. A CIO who do not affectively manage their teams often do not effectively communicate the business strategic goals to the information technology team. The CIO must also make the decision on when to hire a full time employee or outsource the work that is in need of being done. Another important task of the CIO is to produce an annual budget for the information
technology department, which includes operating expenses as well as capital expenditures. With organizations’ continuous drive to reduce cost the CIO must work within the defined budged to evaluate and determine the most impactful areas to spend the information technology department’s financial resources that will produce the greatest impact for the company. In order to fit within the financial boundaries provided to the information technology department the CIO must make decisions such as when and if to outsource a task, purchasing solutions over custom solutions and hosting infrastructure by a third party company.
The value a CIO brings to a company is their ability to effectively complete tasks like developing the strategic direction for the information technology department based on the business goals, creating and managing a budget that fits within the business’s constraints, and managing the information technology employees.
The CIO must also possess skills and experience such as leadership, strategic planning, information technology governance and trend analysis. Without the CIO position, information technology departments often report into another area of the company such as finance or engineering. When this occurs the focus of the information technology department is often not aligned with the companies’ goals but only with departmental goals of the area that oversees the information technology department. Thus resulting in the information technology department not meeting the needs of other business units such as sales, customer services and operations when it comes to developing technology based
efficiencies.
A CIO will typically have a combination of education and experience that are aligned with business needs of the information technology department. The CIO position often requires a graduate degree as “79% of CIOs (who responded to his survey) have graduate degrees… 58% of CIOs have Master’s degrees while 21% have a doctorate.” (Chief information officer (higher education), 2016). The experience requirements for the CIO position ranges between 10 to 15 years’ of experience. The education aspects of the job requirements can often be offset by experience. There are 348,500 (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2015) practitioners in the field with a much faster than average growth outlook. Professional organizations that CIO’s are often engaged with include places like AITP, Senior Leadership Group (LinkedIn), PremierCIO and OCITA.
The CIO role is to ensure that the information technology department is aligned with the strategic goals and is creating value for the business. The tasks associated with this top executive role ensure the information technology department is within the budgetary constraints while meeting and prioritizing the strategic goals to be aligned with the business’s goals. A CIO today is made up of a person with information technology leadership skills, experience, and education to meet the needs of the business.