CIOs losing respect

Consulting firm Accenture has released local findings that the CIO`s role has lost its lustre, with the primary focus in organisations today on short-term cost containment rather than value creation. The return of the CIO to the C-suite (boardroom) will not be easy, the firm says.

At a small gathering in Woodmead this week, some CIOs who participated in the survey ventured that IT and their departments` failure to deliver and demonstrate cost-cutting abilities was to blame. Accenture had not responded at the time of publishing to a request for a list of private sector and government entities that participated in the survey.

CIOs also criticise a short-term view from management, which demands "quick-fix" solutions and sees IT as a cost centre, making it hard to grow the value-creating role of the IT competency, and further increasing pressures to cut budgets.

Yet, says James Arnott, Accenture director, CIOs do not generally employ metrics to measure the cost of IT and its return. Half admitted their measurement of effectiveness is subjective. This, in turn, has led to reluctance to invest in new technology, which further hampers the desired elevation of IT and the CIO into a strategic rather than a mere operational role.

The report adds that a CIO`s capability and credibility determine the success of a desired growth of IT into a strategic resource, but this is easily undermined by an inability to reduce costs or grow the bottom line. "The CIO tends to feel alienated from the top executive team, even in progressive companies. Executives tend to look down on the position despite a growing understanding of technology`s value to improving relationships in the organisation."

Consumer-based companies, such as retail, food processing and the media, are more progressive in their attitude towards technology, the report states. Inwardly-focused organisations tend to lag behind in this regard.

SA organisations` top three CIO priorities were to prevent outages (globally, this ranks third), deliver new business capability (globally, fifth) and ensure availability and performance (globally, sixth). Security ranks only fourth, whereas globally it is seen as the second-most important IT function.

Arnott says CIOs will have to do a number of things to overcome the hurdles of perception and role division. "First, they must find a balance between maintaining a high level of operations and planning strategic investments. They must understand what IT capabilities are key in the latter goal, and share this blueprint with the executive team. They must also pursue 'smart savings`, as well as clear and simple governance and improved time management."

Accenture conducted research among 23 organisations during February and March, asking "one or two" respondents in every organisation (the CIO and in the case of large, distributed enterprises, another), about their organisational role and perceptions around their role.

A detailed questionnaire had the object of determining CIO agendas, comparing local and global results and identifying the applicability of global solutions. Thirty percent of respondents came from product and resource segments each, 22% from communications and hi-tech industries, and 18% from government.

The largest number of respondents came from organisations with more than 20 000 employees, with the fewest coming from the smallest organisations polled (fewer than 5 000 employees).