Chief Information Officer's Evolving Role

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the highest position that devises information technology strategy and support to align with company goals and objectives. The CIO needs to be adaptive to latest technology, data, and skills. In today's scenario, the CIO faces challenges such as 'Shadow IT', cloud decision-making, integrating disparate technologies, and providing a singular experience across multiple platforms. Additionally, the CIO has evolved into an integral part of the top management hierarchy, requiring strong interpersonal and leadership skills. The role demands professionalism, accountability, and hands-on expertise in IT security, architecture, and skills.

Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the highest form of position that intelligently devises
information technology strategy and support computers to order to blend it with the company
goals & objectives.
Change is an inevitable part of constant. A CIO needs to be adaptive to the latest technology,
data, and skills & manifest it into the daily routine (Capella, 2006). There can be challenges &
barriers for the CIO to foresee & implement them.
Now, we will talk about the business challenges confronting the Chief Information Officer (CIO)
of the 21st century. Changes in trends, advancement in technology needs to be a forecasted &
well adapted by the CIO. Some of the below challenges a CIO can face are: Address the growing
need for agility, Break free from technical debt, Balance data accessibility with security, Adapt
to a connected world and Bridge the skills gap.
Challenges faced by today’s 21st century CIO include: “Shadow IT” which involves developing a
third-party cloud based solutions for more data storage capacity. The challenge lies in
integrating it & not bypassing it within the end users. Address the cloud decision is a blend of
in-house apps and cloud apps while integrating cloud computing. In order to save large chunk
of data, companies like to merge its important apps and services to the cloud (Newbold, 2007).
The challenge lies for CIO in decoding which apps, services & data to move. Integrate disparate
technology which involves deciding which apps, services to move & which to forgo is a crucial
decision. The challenge lies in deciding. Provide a singular experience across multiple platforms,
it should deliver similar experience irrespective of the devices been used by the end users. It
should be adaptive as per user devices. Deliver solutions quickly, the challenge lies in quickly
diagnosing the problems, finding new ideas & innovations to provide an enjoyable experience

to the end users. For this, a CIO needs to mix & match after series of experiments & finally
serving the best of technology to users.
Now, the business inter-personal organizational if not political responsibilities of the Chief
Information Officer (CIO) of the 21st century will be discussed. The role of CIO has evolved over
the years & works at same level as of CEO or CFO. The CIO in today’s scenario is an integral part
& is also provides part of the meetings, directors, present revenues related to software,
hardware etc. ( Leidner, 2007). The technical aspects of CIO should be crystal clear & should
provide in-depth discussions to the panel. CIO works adjacently with the top management
hierarchy & works alongside of CEO & COO. The data architect, protected moved from one
dimension to another all are crucial responsibilities of the CIO (Kundra, 2010). Hence a CIO
should give a clear direction or subordinates, colleagues & other important staff members.
Hence they should horn their interpersonal adequately to interact with clients, staff,
subordinates & colleagues.
Demand for Professionalism: The role modeled by CIO should be taken seriously with a sole
responsibility & accountability. Hence should establish a structured leadership role.
Future Opportunities: The technologies know how expertise & qualifications of computer
science, engineering background is a must to pursue career in IT field.
The position of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the 21st century is more important than
the responsibilities of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the 20th century because: CIO role
is more important than the 20th Century since now they are more accountable & need to have a
hands on experiences with the latest skills, techniques & knowledge. The CIO role has evolved
& is now required to stay fine-tuned to IT security, architect, skills expertise etc.

Talking about the CIOs at inflection point, CIO is highly accountable & responsible to keep its
data safe, secure & not to make it fall in the hands of competitors. Since trend is to update itself
hence CIO’s competency lies in upgrading its skills & know how techniques (Jablokow, 2010).
Some of the knowledge skills they must be aware of are cloud-based IT, big data analytics etc. A
breach in the data can lead to job loss of CIO.
Now, if we see the IT budget, CIO salary and compensation, it depends upon the demand &
requirement and CIO budget is calculated on the basis of revenue. The dependency is upon the
industry, sectors & studying various competitive companies. CIO compensation varies as per
the individual company, sector, industry & country. 5% worked for companies with 10,000 or
more employees earning less than 50% high earners (52%) worked for companies with 1,000 or
more employees.

References
Capella, J. (2006). The CIOs first 100 days. Optimize, 5(3), 46-51.
Jablokow, K. W., Jablokow, A. G., & Seasock, C. T. (2010). IT leadership from a problem
solving perspective. Information Technology and Management, 11(3), 107-122.
Kundra, V. (2010). 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology
Management. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT WASHINGTON DC/OFFICE OF
MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET OFFICE OF E-GOVERNMENT AND INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY.
Leidner, D. E., & Mackay, J. M. (2007). How Incoming CIOs Transition into Their New Jobs.
MIS Quarterly Executive, 6(1).
Newbold, D. L., & Azua, M. C. (2007). A model for CIO-led innovation. IBM Systems
Journal, 46(4), 629-637