Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Information Technology (IT) Director, is a job title

commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information
technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals. Generally, the CIO reports to
the chief executive officer, chief operating officer or chief financial officer. In military
organizations, they report to the commanding officer.

The need for CIOs

CIOs form a key part of any business that utilizes technology. In recent times, it has been identified
that an understanding of just business or IT is deficient. CIOs are needed for the management of
IT resources as well as the planning of ICT including policy and practice development, planning,
budgeting, resourcing and training. In addition to this, CIOs are becoming increasingly important
in calculating how to increase profits via the use of ICT frameworks, as well as the vital role of
reducing expenditure and limiting damage by setting up controls and planning for possible
disasters. Computer Weekly magazine highlights that 53% of IT leaders report a shortage of
people with high-level personal skills in the workplace. In this way, CIOs are needed to decrease
the gulf between roles carried out by both IT professionals and non-IT professionals in businesses
in order to set up effective and working relationships.

Roles and responsibilities

The Chief Information Officer of an organization is responsible for a number of roles.
Firstly and most importantly, the CIO must fulfil the role of business leader. As a CIO must
make executive decisions regarding things such as the purchase of IT equipment from
suppliers or the creation of new systems, they are therefore responsible to lead and direct
the workforce of their specific organization.
In addition, the CIO is required to have strong organizational skills. This is particularly
relevant for a Chief Information Officer of an organization, who must balance roles in order
to gain a competitive advantage and keep the best interests of the organizations employees.
CIOs also have the responsibility of recruiting, so it is important that they take on the best
employees to complete the jobs the company needs fulfilling.
In addition, CIOs are directly required to map out both the ICT strategy and ICT policy of
an organization. The ICT strategy covers future proofing, procurement and the external and
internal standards laid out by an organization. Similarly, the CIO must write up the ICT
policy, detailing how ICT is utilized and applied. Both are needed for the protection of the
organization in the short and long term and the process of strategizing for the future.

Information technology
Information technology and its systems have become so important that the CIO has come to be
viewed in many organizations as the key contributor in formulating strategic goals for an
organization. The CIO may be a member of the executive committee of an organization, and/or
may often be required to engage at board level depending on the nature of the organization and its
operating structure and governance environment. No specific qualifications are intrinsic of the CIO
position, though the typical candidate may have expertise in a number of technological fields
- computer science, software engineering, or information systems. Many candidates have Master
of Business Administration or Master of Science in Management degrees. More recently CIOs'
leadership capabilities, business acumen and strategic perspectives have taken precedence over
technical skills. It is now quite common for CIOs to be appointed from the business side of the
organization, especially if they have project management skills.
Typically, a CIO is involved with driving the analysis and re-engineering of existing business
processes, identifying and developing the capability to use new tools, reshaping the enterprise's
physical infrastructure and network access, and with identifying and exploiting the enterprise's
knowledge resources. Many CIOs head the enterprise's efforts to integrate the Internet into both
its long-term strategy and its immediate business plans. CIO's are often tasked with either driving
or heading up crucial IT projects which are essential to the strategic and operational objectives of
an organization. A good example of this would be the implementation of an Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) system which typically has wide-ranging implications for most organizations. The
CIO is evolving into a role where he/she is creating and monitoring business value from IT assets,
the Chief Information Officer (CIO) be replaced with Chief Internal Investments Officer (CIIO).
Another way that the CIO role is changing is an increased focus on service management.
As SaaS, IaaS, BPO and other more flexible value delivery techniques are brought into
organizations the CIO usually functions as a 3rd party manager for the organization. In essence, a
CIO in the modern organization is required to possess business skills and the ability to relate to
the organization as a whole, as opposed to being a technological expert with limited functional
business expertise. The CIO position is as much about anticipating trends in the market place with
regard to technology as it is about ensuring that the business navigates these trends through expert
guidance and proper strategic IT planning that is aligned to the corporate strategy of the
organization.

Distinction between CIO and CTO

The roles of both Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer are commonly blurred.
The CTOs are concerned with technology itself, whereas CIOs are much more concerned with its
applications in the business and how this can be managed.
More specifically, CIOs manage a businesses IT systems and functions, creates and delivers
strategies and policies and places great emphasis on the customers internal to the company. In
contrast to this, CTOs place emphasis on the external customers to the organization and focuses
on how different technology can make the company more profitable.
Systems approach
http://www.slideshare.net/17somya/system-approach-to-management

Modern management is based upon a systems approach to the organization. The systems
approach views an organization as a set of interrelated sub-systems in which variables are
mutually dependent. A system can be perceived as having:

Some components, functions and the processes performed by these various components;

Relationships among the components that uniquely bind them together into a conceptual
assembly which is called a system; and

An organizing principle that gives it a purpose (Albrecht, 1983).

The organizing system has five basic parts, which are interdependent. They are:

the individual;
the formal and informal organization;
patterns of behavior arising out of role demands of the organization;
the role perception of the individuals; and
the physical environment in which individuals work.

The interrelationship of the sub-systems within an organization is fundamental to the systems

approach. The different components of the organization have to operate in a coordinated
manner to attain common organizational goals. This results in synergic effects. The term
synergy means that when different sub-systems work together they tend to be more efficient
than if they work in isolation. Thus, the output of a system with well integrated sub-systems
would be much more than the sum of the outputs of the independent sub-systems working in
isolation.

The systems approach provides a total view of the organization. It enables analysis of an
organization in a scientific manner, so that operating management systems can be developed
and an appropriate MIS designed.

By providing the required information, an MIS can help interrelate, coordinate and integrate
different sub-systems within an organization, thus facilitating and increasing coordinated
working of the sub-systems, with consequent synergism. The interaction between different
components of the organization depends upon integration, communication and decision making.
Together they create a linking process in the organization.

Integration ensures that different sub-systems work towards the common goal. Coordination
and integration are useful controlling mechanisms which ensure smooth functioning in the
organization, particularly as organizations become large and increasingly complex. As
organizations face environmental complexity, diversity and change, they need more and more
internal differentiation, and specialization becomes complex and diverse. The need for
integration also increases as structural dimensions increase.
Communication integrates different sub-systems (specialized units) at different levels in an
organization. It is thus a basic element of the organizational structure necessary for achieving
the organization's goals.