Gartner: CIOs need to focus on business expertise
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(InfoWorld) - Two of three companies aim to grow faster than their markets this year, making it more important than ever for chief information officers to shift their priorities to encompass business objectives, according to a survey from Gartner. CIOs who do that will differentiate themselves, and their enterprise IT departments, and be leaders in an emerging trend where they and their employees have more business skills and acumen, said Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research for Gartner EXP. Gartner has surveyed CIOs for the annual study since 2002. More than 1,400 CIOs were queried worldwide. Gartner has identified four strategies that CIOs should pursue: technical excellence; enterprise agility; information effectiveness; and innovation. The third strategy involves using analytics and applying information to how business decisions are made, rather than how information is moved around a company's computer systems. Companies that "look at [information] as a resource as opposed to an asset to be managed had significantly better performance," McDonald said. Interestingly, the survey found that 86 percent of respondents identify innovation as critical to success, but only 26 percent said that innovation processes are sufficient to achieve goals. Although a corporate environment or culture that does not encourage innovation was flagged as the number-one roadblock, the survey found that among those who said that innovation processes are sufficient, corporate culture wasn't mentioned. Rather, those companies approach innovation as a "structured process" that generates results. Those enterprises also have "technology effectiveness," with IT departments that operate at "a service level" but keep costs under control. As for budgets, the survey found that IT departments on average will have more money for the fourth year in a row, but just 3 percent more on average and 3.4 percent among U.S. companies whose CIOs were surveyed. That's not much and points to the need to "do more with what you've got" as opposed to doing more with less, McDonald said. Along those lines, successful CIOs understand that "business knowledge has to become the highest common denominator across the IT shop." That presents a challenge for some companies where the IT department focus is more on technical expertise. "My coder should know how my company makes money regardless of the work they do," McDonald said. Ensuring that means that "you have to change the source of new recruits." More than 70 percent of CIOs anticipate they will hire new employees from IT shops at other companies rather than "tapping into the reservoir of talent within their own businesses." Recruiting from other IT departments means you wind up with "more of the same rather than someone who is different," he said. CIOs also need to focus on training for employees they already have, to help them develop heightened business acumen. That could include something as simple and inexpensive as brown-bag lunch sessions, McDonald said. Overall, Gartner finds that CIOs need to focus on "the next big round number" and develop a vision for 2010. The last such focus was in 2000 when "everybody was kind of willing to celebrate, but they were celebrating and laying out grand strategies with an eye over their shoulders because they weren't sure if their systems were going to collapse," he said. CIOs who don't look to 2010 and communicate a vision for their departments will find that others do that for them, McDonald said.
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Two of three companies aim to grow faster than their markets this year, making it more important than ever for chief information officers to shift their priorities to encompass business objectives, according to a survey from Gartner.
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MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 11  /PRNewswire/ -- A net 5 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area expect to hire information technology (IT) professionals in the first quarter of 2007, according to the most recent Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.
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A new survey indicates that CIOs are only hiring for positions that address long-term needs. By TechWeb News. Chief information officers in the US continue to take a cautious approach to increasing IT staff
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HOUSTON, Dec. 11  /PRNewswire/ -- A net 15 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) in the Houston area expect to hire information technology (IT) professionals in the first quarter of 2007, according to the most recent Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.
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Could blogging be near the peak of its popularity? The technology gurus at Gartner Inc. believe so.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 11  /PRNewswire/ -- A net 6 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) in the Charlotte area expect to hire information technology (IT) professionals in the first quarter of 2007, according to the most recent Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.
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(Source: Tibco)  Every day, millions of individuals within large organizations make small, yet important business decisions based on their experience and whatever information happens to be available at the time. With little time to spare, these decisions are often taken with an incomplete view of the situation, as 'good information' is all too often still difficult to find. Faced with a backlog for new enterprise reports, out-of-control 'spreadsheet marts', and a plethora of custom applications all trying to accomplish similar goals, CIOs and business managers alike need to consider a new approach.
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HOUSTON, June 6  /PRNewswire/ -- A net 13 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) in the Houston area expect to hire information technology (IT) professionals in the third quarter of 2007, according to the most recent Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.
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(Source: Planview) A recent Ventana Research study of CIOs and other IT leaders showed that companies that do not apply rigorous standards and metrics to their IT organization are in fact "sitting on a goldmine" - or perhaps letting it wash away. They estimate that in many cases companies may be able to save 3 to 5 percent of their annual IT budget through tighter management practices.  Download this on demand webcast to learn more.
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Risky business IT systems have become so integral to businesses that their failure can have disastrous consequences for an organisation, according to analysts Gartner.â¦
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A medical center CIO shares best practices when PDAs, BlackBerries, smart phones and the like must be hooked up to your network.
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IT security professionals need to take steps to properly manage how employee-owned consumer devices are used in the workplace, analysts warned at Gartner&#39;s IT security summit in London this week.
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My Sept. 18 âHigher Hiringâ column ignited a firestorm in my inbox. A fair number of readers agreed that todayâs IT management is looking primarily for techies with communications expertise, management chops, and business smarts â skills many old-school heads-down programmers lack.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 6  /PRNewswire/ -- A net 9 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) in the Charlotte area expect to hire information technology (IT) professionals in the third quarter of 2007, according to the most recent Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.
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PHOENIX, March 6  /PRNewswire/ -- A net 21 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) in the Phoenix area expect to hire information technology (IT) professionals in the second quarter of 2007, according to the most recent Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.
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CIOs at Enterprise Management World see server consolidation as a way to reduce management complexity in data centers and avoid the need to buy more server hardware.