The CIO role can ‘disappear’ but only for the right reasons, asserts Marcel van den Assum, a professional director and independent advisor.
By this, says the former Fonterra CIO, “You have got to the point of maturity in your organisation where the executive leadership has embedded IS principles and understanding, and that is a reflection of the information revolution having run its course.”
Don't be offended if you are soon asked to come to a meeting "topless". Tired of people tapping away on their laptops in meetings or killing time with their BlackBerrys, a growing number of companies have ordered employees to leave the devices behind and come to meetings "topless", as in lose the laptop.
The trend started in the US and was catching on here, boardroom consultant Geoff Kiel, chairman of Effective Governance, said.
BHP Billiton has finalised a new, global information technology strategy that opens the door for the resources giant to determine the fate of a $700 million computer outsourcing contract that has been in limbo since late last year.
The company also named Ken Matthews its chief information officer following the appointment of former technology boss Jon Dudas to oversee BHP's aluminium business. Mr Dudas had headed the miner's information systems department since August and took on the role on a temporary basis after previous CIO Dave Richardson retired. Mr Matthews previously served as the commercial manager for corporate IT.
Not so long ago, if Underwriters Laboratories needed to add three additional servers worth of computing power in three weeks, the company just bought three new units, says Kent Walker, manager of computer operations for UL. With more time for capacity analysis - which is both labor and time-intensive - Walker might be able to shift resources around and stave off the purchase. But when the need is immediate, there's no time for that.
Metals manufacturer BlueScope Steel is exploring opportunities to extract value from an estimated $60 million upgrade of its Australian and New Zealand sales and distribution software systems.
The company has also put a firmer timetable on plans to replace one of its domestic supply chain platforms with technology picked up last year through its acquisition of Smorgon Steel Distribution.
Westpac Banking Corporation is facing an information systems integration bill of more than $220 million but would shave at least $43 million a year off its computing and communication costs under its proposed $18.6 billion acquisition of St George Bank.
The bill could rise even higher if Westpac used the integration as an excuse to replace its ageing core business systems, but broad similarities between the acquirer's computer platforms and its target's could also dull some of the potential for pain in the merger.
ASB has appointed Russell Jones as the bank's head of group technology.
Jones has worked for paper company Sappi in both South Africa and Europe, as well as Carter Holt Harvey in New Zealand and International Paper in the US.
Businesses in the Asia-Pacific region have yet to develop well-established leadership processes, as the shortage of management talent pushes salaries to record levels.
The severity of the problem stems from an insufficient number of potential leaders and leadership development constraints, according to IBM's Global Human Capital Study 2008 called Unlocking the DNA of the Adaptable Workforce.
1. Devolving of the CIO role
This year marks the beginning of a trend in which some CIO positions have been devolved through business acquisitions and mergers, or through organisational restructuring.
Sages hoping to make their name by adding a new inevitability to the list currently headed by death and taxes could do worse than spend a week or two exploring the information security industry.
The time would be well spent because even the bitterest of foes and fiercest competitors in the industry agree that hackers have morphed from clever kids showing off their skills into deadly serious cyber criminals intent on fleecing anyone and everyone they can find online.
More than 40 per cent of CIOs do not believe their departments deliver 'great' IT, and 44 per cent still have no say in strategic decision making, according to a recent report.
The results of the research make a direct correlation between involving IT directors in strategic decision-making, and how effective IT directors perceive their departments to be. The research, commissioned by business management solutions company Touchpaper, was conducted on CIOs and IT directors in the UK private and public sectors.
CIOs and IT leaders approaching their next PC technology refresh had better do some serious preparation. Technology refreshes—when enterprises replace one-third to one-quarter of their PC fleets each year on a rolling basis—have become pretty routine in recent years. But several factors are coming together right now to make refresh decisions more complicated and more fraught with risk, says Bruce Michelson, Hewlett-Packard’s national lifecycle manager. “This refresh is kind of a perfect storm,” says Michelson, who travels to HP’s Fortune 500 customers to study and share best practices regarding PC lifecycles.
Think of the factors affecting your next refresh as simultaneous storm fronts bearing names like Consumer IT and Virtualisation. (It almost goes without saying that Microsoft Vista upgrade plans, if you have them, will factor into this refresh cycle.)
With a name like Champion, the CIO of the West Coast District Health Board could well be the favourite to win Computerworld’s CIO of the Year Award.
Wayne Champion is a finalist in the Sun Microsystems-sponsored category, along with Andrew Diver, manager of systems development at Vero Insurance and Russell Turner, the MetService’s CIO.