Chief Information Officer-Lecture 14

Puneet Mangla

The role of CIO

Head of information system management function in an organisation. Has powers of decision making and authority with regard to managing the IS function as the chief officers. CIO act as a coordinator to manage the roles, jobs, funds and time allocation for the employees.

Information system Plan

CIO has to create a IS plan in consultation with the other officers. The CIO has to create policies by which decisions will be taken regarding IS acquisition. These policies also have to specify the security and access guidelines for all the data and information residing in an organisation.

 The Typical contents of IS plan are: -Specify the role of It to support different activities and processes. -the manner in which IT infrastructure will be designed and managed. -the specific tasks that will have to be undertaken to manage the IS. -the organisational setup of employess and reporting relationships -The policies that will be followed for the use of the IS.

Vendor Coordination
The CIO is a person who interfaces with large vendors , particularly for the centralised IT management. This high level interaction enables vendors to report to and request resources from a person of responsibility.

Technology Updates
The CIO has to monitor the technical developments happening in the industry. The person must have It background and knowledge of It and the ability to follow the multiple trends in industry. He often attend conferences and seminars organised by industry associations to understand the growth path of technologies.

Return on investment of Technology

ROI is the numerical measure of the financial value of an investment. CIO has to compute whether It investments have provided a returns or not. IT by itself does not contribute to the revenue generation for commercial firms unless they are themselves in IT business.