Chief information officer

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The chief information officer (CIO) is a job title for the board-level head of information technology within an organization. The CIO typically reports to the chief operations officer or the chief executive officer. In military organizations, they report to the commanding officer.

CIO

Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals. As information technology and systems have become more important, the CIO has come to be viewed in many organizations as a key contributor in formulating strategic goals. Typically, the CIO in a large enterprise delegates technical decisions to employees more familiar with details. Usually, a CIO proposes the information technology needed by an enterprise to achieve its goals and then works within a budget to implement the plan. The CIO role is also sometimes used interchangeably with the chief technology officer role, although they may be slightly different. When both positions are present in an organization, the CIO is generally responsible for processes and practices supporting the flow of information, whereas the CTO is generally responsible for technology infrastructure.

Information technology

The prominence of the CIO position has risen greatly as information technology has become a more important part of business. In some organizations, the CIO may be a member of the executive board of the organization. No specific qualification is typical of CIOs in general. In the past, many have expertise in computer science, software engineering, or information systems, but this is not universal. Increasingly CIOs, especially those from a technical background, hold Master of Business Administration or Master of Science in Management degrees.^[1]. More recently CIOs' leadership capabilities, business acumen and strategic perspectives have taken precedence over technical skills. It is now quite common for CIOs to be appointed from the business side of the organization, especially if they have project management skills.

In recent years governments and government departments have employed CIOs and recruited them from the private sector. The main reason for this is that as government departments have modernized their processes they have made costly IT mistakes and now require highly experienced IT executives to cut the best deals for their organizations.

In 2007 a survey amongst CIOs by CIO magazine in the UK discovered that their top 10 concerns were: people leadership, managing budgets, business alignment, infrastructure refresh, security, compliance, resource management, managing customers, managing change and board politics^[2].

Typically, a CIO is involved with analyzing and reworking existing business processes, with identifying and developing the capability to use new tools, with reshaping the enterprise's physical infrastructure and network access, and with identifying and exploiting the enterprise's knowledge resources. Many CIOs head the enterprise's efforts to integrate the Internet into both its long-term strategy and its immediate business plans.

See also

• Geospatial Information Officer
• System administrator
• Director of communications

References

1. ^ Should You Get an MBA? - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership
2. ^ Granger: The final word - CIO UK Magazine

External links

• US Federal CIO Council
• UK Government - CIO Council
• The Chief Information Officer Concept in E-government: Lessons for Developing Countries. By D.C. Misra. On United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs WebBoard.