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The State of the CIO 2010 - Hope for IT/Biz Alignment

Published: January 22 2010, 11:42 AM
by Steve Romero

My last post covered some of the key highlights from the latest CIO Magazine "State of the CIO 2010." I want to cover a couple of the items I found most interesting in their latest CIO survey.

First, I am very encouraged by the increased focus on how IT can improve products and connect with customers. This gets to the heart of my ideas about IT/Biz Alignment. IT Governance is key to fostering this alignment - which brings me to a portion of the survey that drives me nuts.

Let's take another look at the top priorities for CIOs in 2010 cited in the survey:

  • Aligning IT and business goals
  • Controlling IT costs
  • IT Governance and portfolio Management
  • Business process redesign
  • Leadership development/staff training
  • Marketing IT's business contribution
  • Rationalizing or centralizing the application portfolio
  • Protecting customer data privacy
  • Scaling IT globally

Note the first and third items listed: Aligning IT and business goals and IT Governance and Portfolio Management (PPM). They are listed as separate priorities. As I noted above, IT Governance (and PPM) is key to fostering IT/Biz Alignment, but Biz/IT Alignment is the #1 priority and Governance is #3. Yes, they are both high priorities, but having them listed separately continues to support my belief that many organizations do not fully understand and appreciate the connection between the two. (I have discussed how IT Governance fosters IT/Biz Alignment in previous posts so I won't repeat it here.)

In spite of my misgivings, I am trying to see the bright side of the survey by focusing on the fact they are both very high priorities. I am hopeful the increased exposure will help reveal the direct-connections between them and CIOs will subsequently view IT Governance as their highest priority.

Which circles me back to the beginning of this post and the primary point of the CIO Magazine Survey results, the increased focus on IT's influence on products and customers. The statement on the cover reads: "Our annual State of the CIO research reveals sharper commercial focus as IT reinvents business alignment." I love the sharper commercial focus, but I wince at the suggestion this is a reinvention of business alignment. I wish they had said that IT finally understands the concept of IT/Biz alignment and that CIOs are now taking accountability for showing a direct correlation between IT and the commercial success of their enterprises.

Given my passion for IT/Biz Alignment, it was encouraging to find nearly two-thirds of CIOs surveyed have responsibility for a business area outside of the IT organization. This should foster increased IT understanding of the business they serve. And though only 43% of CIOs report to the CEO, it was wonderful to hear that 70% of them have a seat at the business leadership table. This puts them in a great position to address the highest priorities cited in the study.

Once again, here is a link to the CIO survey which is well worth a look. http://www.cio.com/article/511240/2010_State_of_the_CIO_Today_s_Focus_for_IT_Departments_Business_Opportunities_

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist

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By: Steve Romero
Steve Romero is the IT Governance Evangelist at CA Technologies, Inc. His mission is to help enterprises realize the full potential of their IT investments for strategic and competitive advantage. In this capacity, he acts as a strong advocate for the customer, speaking around the world to users, prospective...
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2 people have left comments:

Steve,

I agree that the separation of "Aligning IT and business goals" and "IT Governance and Portfolio Management" hints at a superficial understanding of how to capitalise fully on good governance and PPM. It also says to me that it's so important that they listed it twice! This is great news to people like us who have been evangelising governance and PPM for years - here's hoping that 2010 is a great year.

I still think that institutional resistance to change (in controls) in larger organisations will prevent a lot of success implementing PPM in the coming 12 months. Another challenge is the ingrained cultural fear of making mistakes. The last couple of years has seen a marked rise in the demand for rapid response and showing immediate results of large organisational change efforts. Whilst I think this is a good thing to help promote accountability and better estimation of project benefits, it also needs to be paired with greater tolerance for mistakes. If you want to move more quickly, you *are* going to stumble - the key is to realise that mistakes can be great teachers... just as long as there isn't a stigma of shame about making them.

I look forward to meeting the challenges presented by these top priorities, and the expanded body of knowledge that will be accumulated over the next 12 months.

Posted by: Mike McClure | January 22, 2010 6:55 PM

One thing is for sure: the CIO has a lot of responsibilities. While I don't know much about the difference between Aligning IT and IT Governance, I am learning that this is a lot more complicated than I thought. I give these guys a lot of credit for the work that they do.

Posted by: learning about manufacturing erp | May 9, 2011 11:32 AM

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