Good article addressing the future of the CIO....health care in particular is a challenging role for the CIO...a good idea to make sure the CIO is in to servers, virtualization, outsourcing and Web 2.0 to build a solid organized future....CIOs of today and tomorrow need leadership, communication and IT skills....it's an executive as well as a "hands on" position....BD
The CIO also needs a strong set of relationship management capabilities to manage the increasingly larger network of relationships that define today's IT environment—internal staff, contractors, outsourcing partners, internal business partners, an external network of peers, and in some instances, an external
network of clients.
For example, in healthcare, with a growing number of regional health information organizations, CIOs have responsibility for providing data and interoperability not only to members of their own organization, but also other hospitals and healthcare entities. Here, careful management of relationships with entities where there is no formal reporting structure becomes critical.
Well BD, I'm sorry but your comments say to me that you are another person who does not understand the CIO's role. The CIO is part of a companies executive committee the same as any other 'C' level executive is.
ReplyDeleteWhat you are describing is an IT Head or IT Director, IT Manager or similar.
An effective CIO must engage the business as a business savvy person and align the exploitation of technology to the business through managing the resources he/she has available, whether these be internal resources or outsource in nature.
Obviously a 30,000 foot view of the benefits of the latest and greatest technologies and trends (incl traps for young players) is mandayory, but to suggest that the CIO must be a techo and work and bit and byte level is to show an inate misunderstanding of the CIO.
If a CIO deals at the level you suggest with board members, he will fail I can assure you.
I am a CIO and have been for several companies and interestingly right now in the sector you mention in one of the world's largest healthcare organizations.
Your comments are interesting yet naive in the extreme and it is these sort of comments that cause CIO's to struggle with their role in the business at times.
Have you not heard of the CTO?
Thank you for the comments, good to hear from a CIO in health care. Perhaps a bit broad on some of my comments as the size of the company sometimes can mean whether or not they have a CTO too, as I have found some smaller companies that do not, thus a combination role if you will with a CIO handling some CTO issues as well. I think a certain amount of tech ability certainly comes in handy though with knowing where we going with communication today and how and where the information securely travels. All of us struggle today with some of the unknown that seems to appear daily with either new software, web services, etc. and bringing all of this under one roof is a challenge, I can certainly agree there. Physicians too have the same issues daunting them every day as well. Appreciate your taking time to comment and offer the viewpoints of a current CIO in health care as well.
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