Chief Information Officers play vital role

The role of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) is far greater than they once were, as they now have to interact with multiple stakeholders and be responsible for a variety of issues.

 

Speaking with the media yesterday after the conclusion of the inaugural KPMG CIO Forum at the Courtyard by Marriott, Partner – Advisory Services, KPMG, Brenda Pope stated that their job no longer involves just looking after the technology. As a result, they are going to have to adopt a different  approach.      

 

“They need to be more strategic and they need to understand their role is much wider and they have to deal with customers, they have to deal with 

internal annex...and know that their role is going to be wider than just the pure, traditional IT of…your networks. That is a given,” Pope stated.

 

She said that there are two things that would make these CIOs more successful, and one of these factors involves these IT professionals educating the CEOs and Board of Management of their organisations that IT is an overall business issue and therefore, encompasses many areas.                                                

 

“The two success factors that you have to have are committed and educated CEOs/Board and so I think that we need to make sure that our Boards and CEOs understand that IT is not a technology issue. It is a business issue and that they need to be aware and educated about what the benefits, opportunities, issues are, whether it is security, agility, responsiveness, customer centricity. Whatever it is, we need to understand what IT can do.”

 

Pope said that this factor which they learnt from the CIO Survey 2016 conducted by Harvey Nash and KPMG International also shows them that IT personnel need to have more knowledge when it comes to these issues.

 

“And then the second thing that I would say are the implications for Barbados are that our ITs and CIOs need to step up to the plate and broaden their horizons and understand it is no longer about saving money necessarily, and it is no longer about having a technology platform, but they need to be out there and leading the drive for (the) strategic use of IT. 

 

“They need to be putting themselves forward with the persons that can come to them – executive management team – and make quantifiable business decisions that are...not just qualitative, but quantitative and showing how the benefits would redound to the company.”