CIO Concerns and Resolutions for the New Year

The job of CIOs is getting harder everyday as IT has become the driving force behind every business. We surveyed key IT decision makers across the country to find out their major concerns in 2007 and what gave them most satisfication last year. We also look ahead to find out what are their concerns and resolutions for the promising 2008

Thursday, January 03, 2008

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It's that time of year when we analyze events from the past year and work on resolutions for new year. You not only get to learn from mistakes committed in the past but also clues on the sort of changes you would like to see in the coming year. We reached out to some of the key IT decision makers across India and gauged their concerns and resolutions for the coming year. We also tried to find out issues that gave them the maximum sleepless nights during 2007. Read on to find out directly from the horse's mouth.

Sleepless nights! How many?
We asked CIOs to recall issues that were the cause of many a sleepless night in 2007. Most of them averred that with businesses growing at such a fast pace, they need to keep coming up with strategies to keep up with the competition. So, they face the daunting task of aligning IT with business needs. In fact, this was the topmost concern amongst CIOs in 2007. Enterprises have made huge investments in IT during the last few years and are now looking at reaping rewards for these investments. These days, whenever they start a new project, the first thing a CIO needs to justify is how the project will add to the value to the enterprise. IT is no longer considered a need or service; it's the means of staying ahead and growing at a fasterpace.

However, the solution to this problem is quite simple and requires a CIO to clearly understand the challenges before a company and play an important role in making business decisions. This is why a CIO is also reffered as a 'Chief Insight Officer' sometimes.

The next big challenge that most enterprises face is the expansion of IT infrastructure. With the growth of organizations, expansion of IT infrastructure becomes a priority. And as globalization is the name of the game, organizations are opening up more and more branch offices that need to be connected to the head office through WAN Links. Some of the respondents quoted last mile support and availability of resources in remote areas as points of concern. Similarly, maintaining 100% uptime was another problem faced by enterprises. Yet another interesting one was related to CIOs struggling to expand their IT infrastructure due to tight budgets. This gives a fair amount of idea of how hard pressed CIOs are to spend their money on the right technologies, despite the fact that IT budgets of enterprises are increasing. To cope with this challenge, enterprises are doing some serious cost control, another issue that gave sleepless nights to IT decision makers.

No matter what kind of IT solution you are implementing, you can never ignore security. A major chunk of CIOs said that network security has always been a major hassle. Even though they've taken adequate steps to ensure security for their enterprises, they still can't claim it to be fool proof. Which is a bit strange as enterprises have made significant investments in network security last year, just to ensure their businesses don't suffer any breakdowns due to any attacks or data thefts.

Time frame of some IT projects can be very long, so it becomes extremely important for enterprises to hire the right staff and retain them. If a key employee leaves during the implementation of a major project, it can be a real setback to the company, for a new employee would require time to understand a company's business, project and work done in the project. This might, sometimes, result in extension of deadlines and the technology becoming obsolete. Also over time, a company's requirements might change. CIOs are also unhappy with the poaching of employees groomed by them. Other issues giving sleepless nights to CIOs are Vendor Management, Compliance, and Server Consolidation.

What's the score in project completion?
Ask any IT topshot, there is nothing more satisfying than finishing an IT project, no matter what kind of project it is or how long it takes. In our survey, we asked the CIOs one thing that they completed in 2007 which gave them maximum satisfaction. Other than project completion, to our surprise many said that getting their budgets approved for IT project and getting additional funds was most satisfying. As these lead to faster completion of projects or improvement in IT infrastructure. And all this ultimately leads to customer satisfaction which always is the prime goal of any organization.

Plans and resolutions 2008
So what's the priority of key decision makers across the country for 2008? Any guesses? Did you say the same thing that was last year? Well believe it or not, it's true. In our survey when asked about vision of CIOs for 2008, most of them said 'Aligning IT with business needs,' the same thing that gave them sleepless night in 2007. While aligning IT with business goals, CIOs are very much concerned to ensure that businesses run smoothly and life of everyone gets better at work.

Interestingly CIOs are least worried about cost control in the coming year which was one of the main issues which caused sleepless nights to them. Implementing new technologies to improve their organization's competiveness is what CIOs are planning to do in the coming year. As you would expect to support fast growth of businesses, IT infrastructure expansion also remains in priority list of CIOs. In the coming year CIOs are looking to improve the current processes and policies and be more realistic about their targets. In terms of investments, CIOs are keen on security and DR and BCP. CIOs are also planning on significant investments in Virtualization, Unified communication, and Web services. Between all this Green IT also happens to be in back of their minds. CIOs are also serious about retaining their current staff for the coming year and taking steps to ensure that they give their team best possible carrier opportunities.

User resolutions
Between all these business concerns CIOs haven't forgotten their users and they do care about their smiles. According to CIOs in the coming year, they plan to listen to their users more attentively and get frequent feedbacks from them. As we all know user feedback is something no one can neglect and it's been said a lot of times that it's the users who give most effective ideas. CIOs also plan to improve support for their users and provide them with training.

IT Team resolutions
More leaders and better team spirit in their IT teams, that's what most CIOs are looking for in the coming year. Providing job satisfaction (one of the hardest things to do) and motivating their IT teams are also in priority list of CIOs. Plus CIOs are also looking for ways to ensure that they retain their current IT teams and provide regular trainings to ensure that their team upgrades its skills with time.

Top management resolutions
Other than Aligning IT with business needs, CIOs also want to reduce the communication gap between them and top management. CIOs are planning to stay cost conscious for the coming year and show good returns to top management.

Vendor resolutions
Good news for vendors: CIOs are looking toward a healthy relationship with their vendors. They are also willing to create a transparent system between themselves and vendors to reduce the conflicts. Giving vendors clear picture about their requirements and ensuring quality as well as timely delivery is also among resolutions. Furthermore, CIOs are making attempts to understand technology roadmaps and planning according to them to ensure upgrading is not an issue at later stages.

Conclusion
Irrespective of how was the year 2007, CIOs are upbeat about the coming year and planning to ensure profits soar in coming year. Investments in IT will continue to grow and CIOs are also positive about the new technologies.

We thank all the key IT decision makers across the country for participating in our survey and wish them all the best for new year. May all their resolutions come true. Read on to find out directly from some of the topshots about their resolutions.

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