The New Age CIO- Business Transformation Partner

It is becoming increasingly necessary for Industries and Organizations to improve

Productivity, Reliability and keep pace with the ever increasing demands .Never
before has there been such a pressure on Business-the Production and Engineering
departments to keep up to these demands.
Business has no other choice but to identify issues, adapt new technologies, debottleneck and implement Engineering/Process IT Innovation drives wherever
practical and possible.
In these scenarios, the CIO or the Chief Information Officer can play the role of a
partner and assist the Business team achieve their objectives.
Typically the CIO and the IT teams role have been restricted to
Implementation ,Support & Maintenance of Enterprise needs related to IT
hardware and Software.
IT teams have in the past procured specific software and hardware , have got tied
down by the lock in periods ,typically three to four and have eventually got trapped
with the obsolete software down the line.
The advent of Cloud & Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service & Software
as a Service has provided the CIO with new possibilities .
Technology trends and landscapes are much more dynamic now and there is an
increasing need for CIOs to look at getting out of the traditional support mode
and get more focused on meeting the ever increasing demands from Business.
The Organization now increasingly looks at the CIO for critical support to the
Business teams, without which no Transformations would be possible.
A Proactive CIO is the one that sees the cue and takes the lead in these
transformational initiatives that can make a big difference to the way the
Organization performs.
Most CIOs of Organizations report to the CFO, I am not sure if this is the right thing
to do.However a smart CIO can take advantage of this structure and ensure that
they have the blessings of the CFO to allocate good Budgets to IT and Process and
Engineering IT initiatives.
Having said that in todays recessionary times, these Budget allocations are not
easy .A lot is expected to be achieved with a reduced budget and in least time.
Also several IT initiatives related to Business improvements in the past have not
been successful ,mainly because the CIO and the IT teams has never been
considered as a reliable partner to implement and be responsible for such Initiatives
and its Implementation.

How can the CIO and his team become a trusted Business partner and how do they
first ensure these Budget allocations? How would they get the Management Support
and backing?

-A Business Transformation programme

The first phase would necessitate the hiring of a Business Process Improvement
Consultant who would on a fast track, identify issues across the Business units,
recommend Areas of Improvement.
{We will not get into details here about the way the programme is to be managed}
The Consultant should ideally be asked to recommend a short list of areas of
improvement, those which can provide the Organization with the maximum Impact.
-An Innovation drive
There is no point in diluting the efforts of Innovation by identifying far too
many areas for innovation and improvement as mentioned earlier.
This should be Targeted and only those Innovations that can meet the new
Business needs and challenges must be taken up.
The following would be KEY to the success of these IT Innovation drives.
-Branding Campaign
A precursor to the Innovation project should be a well designed and
branded campaign.
This campaigns only objective is to sell this idea within the Business and
to ensure that the entire Business team realizes the value of this
programme and the Business Outcomes that it is designed to achieve
-Right Technology
Identify a tested and proven Technology .Its a good idea to make site visits to
organizations that have implemented these Technologies successfully and get a
good feedback
-Right Leader & Right team
The leader should ideally be CIO who shares the Business & the Organizations
vision. He should be assisted by a Business Leader. The need for small focused
teams comprising Leads from IT and Business is absolutely necessary .The right
leader needs to assist and lead the team and justify to the Core team, the need for
these innovation drives and the resultant Business Outcomes.

-Right Partner to Implement

Identification of the Right partner to implement is another Key need and ideally the
selected product or the technology OE is the right agency to recommend the
partner.

-Right Methodology, Framework

Its very important to ensure the right methodology which ensures consistent
internal stakeholder support.How do we manage this?
The idea is to break up these projects in phases and into small projects rather than
go with a Big bang approach.
Create small POCs, demonstrate small success stories.
The best way to show proof of success of typical process Automation or other IT
Innovation drives is to get the Business users to see and measure success-the best
way is to implement a POC ,develop a small self service portal , where they are able
to key in specific data and see tangible benefits .
Unless the Business Users do not perceive this as an Experiment and a Risk, the
project will not meet its objectives.
If this is achieved, not only the Roll Outs of the project is guaranteed but also in the
least time and well within the reduced Budgets.
Lessons Learnt
The CIO must make these success stories visible to his Organization at the right
times during the project progress. The objective must be to ensure that the rest of
the Organization and key stake holders are confident about the success and
supports him and the Business teams.
Change is always resisted; people get complacent and comfortable doing things the
old way. Its important for them to experience the Changes Innovation brings and
how it lets them achieve their Objectives better and more efficiently.
Smart CIOs are the ones that are looking to Outsource routine and Typical Support
and gearing up to meet the new Business Challenges.
The role of the new age CIO is to lead from the front and move from typical
Supporting the Business to Contributing to Business through a string of
IT and Engineering/Process IT Innovation drives that transforms the
Business.

Sunil Rao
suneilrao@gmail.com
(The Author is a Sr Executive in a leading Tier I IT Organisation)