Keep Your Friends Close and CIOs Closer
When
technology is moving in a fast-forward mode, it is extremely difficult
for chief information officers (CIOs) to stay in tune with the changing
times. So, most CIOs are reduced to performing mere figurehead roles
and, gradually, they tend to become what has come to be known as “chief
ignorant officers”. In such cases, the onus obviously falls on CEOs to
tame their CIOs and give the right direction to corporate tech
initiatives so that costs are optimized and tech-business integration
achieved. Here are five simple tips that can help CEOs deal with
their ignorant CIOs:
Tech chase: Do you
know that in many cases, the technology buying decisions are influenced
by vendors? And vendors, these days, are selling terminology, not
technology. The old technologies are repackaged or renamed so that they
can be sold to businesses again.
A server, for example, is a
server. Giving it a new label like “blade server” does not mean that you
need to buy and deploy it. Similarly, a worker who is processing ERP
purchase order forms would never need to replace the ordinary PC with a
newly introduced multimedia machine. A simple rule: Your application
should demand a new product, not your CIO. Since CIOs are not quite
aware of their corporate needs, they just get tempted by the vendors’
sales campaigns and buy new products. The burden comes straight down on
a company’s coffers. You can always say “no” to purchases that do not
have any relevance to mission-critical applications.
Returns on investments:
There is hardly any empirical method to calculate returns on your
technology investments. While all vendors claim high returns for their
wares, the truth is that, even they do not suggest any reliable
yardstick to measure such returns. However, your tech heads easily get
fooled and eventually forget to measure returns. They are trying to
cheat you if they loosely say that returns are in terms of efficient
processes. These are vague, intangible measures. You should never allow
them to buy any product if they are not able to clearly measure its
utility for your core business activities. A bank—after adding four
servers to its infrastructure—can clearly quantify business growth from
the increased number of transactions.
Investment protection:
If you need to augment your enterprise IT infrastructure, CIOs are not
supposed to randomly dump equipment that already exist. They need to
ensure that the new equipment should protect the earlier investments.
This could be through vendors’ buy-back schemes or redeployment of old
equipment. For example, if you have to replace your photocopier, printer
and scanner with a contemporary multi-function device, you can always
use the old machines at a distant branch office or with stand-alone
computers at the same location.
Junkets: Simply say
“no” to vendor-sponsored events or junkets when your CIOs show eagerness
to attend them. These extravaganzas are generally dance-and-dine shows
or at best vendors’ sales presentations under the garb of
knowledge-sharing forums. Most CIOs prefer to waste time at these
events. You need to check the relevance of such requests in light of
your business requirements. If CIOs are so inclined to attend some
vendor events, ask them to prepare white papers on the application of
those technologies for your business environment. With such a rider, it
is highly likely that CIOs would stop going to these events. Try it
without any hesitation.
Research figures:
Sometimes, just to please vendors for covert reasons—maybe to return
favours for a recently hosted junket—CIOs would quote some research
figures, saying that the market is bullish on a particular genre of
products. But, this may not be true. These research figures conceal more
than what they reveal. For example, if the Asia-Pacific market for
notebook computers is growing, you need not buy notebooks for every Tom,
Dick and Harry in your company. The existing desktops must be adequate
for them.
There can be a question mark
on authenticity of research, too. That’s because most such research
findings are based on mere arm-chair chats, and not backed by any
meaningful surveys. So, just don’t fall prey to research-based tricks.
That’s IT. Dear CEOs, all
this is rule of thumb that will help you know your CIOs better and
ensure more bang for each investment buck that you pump into the
technology gear.
This article was written by
Rakesh Raman
for
The Financial Express newspaper. It’s also available on the newspaper’s
site, at:
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Keep-your-friends-close-and-CIOs-closer/300751/0
It was also republished by Yahoo! India
Finance site, at
http://in.biz.yahoo.com/080423/203/6szvo.html
Rakesh Raman
is the managing
editor of My Techbox Online.
