For the longest time, Chief Information Officers were solely responsible for managing internal information technology infrastructure – the backend systems that make the machinations of modern business possible. Chief Technology Officers, on the other hand, occupied a different space, using their specialized technical skill sets to roll out market-ready products for everyday customers. However, this is no longer the case. The rapid evolution of enterprise and consumer technology has forced organizations to rearrange their internal operations to facilitate the cross-functional collaboration needed to deliver and support cutting-edge offerings. This changing state of affairs has, in turn, forced CIOs into new territory: the product development process.
These once isolated technological stakeholders now spend considerable time and energy on public-facing projects meant to drive revenue and prompt organizational growth. American businesses are expected to devote more than $527 billion to research and development efforts this year alone, according to projections from the Industrial Research Institute and R&D Magazine.
How will CIOs fit into these important initiatives? Here are some of the ways internal IT leaders are affecting modern product development:
Supporting the customer experience
For the longest time, enterprise IT infrastructure existed solely to support backend business operations in the finance department and other divisions. This state of affairs has changed with the rise of digital consumer products, CIO.com reported. This shift started more than a decade ago, as organizations transitioned from physical product to digital alternatives and ramped up their software development operations in accordance with this sea change, according to analysts at Accenture. Application and product lifecycle management strategies rose to prominence as a result, forcing organizations to devote once strictly internal technical resources to outwardly facing projects.
Today, enterprise IT plays an essential role in the customer experience. Most new web-based offerings require proprietary technical support. From everyday functionality to troubleshooting, the IT department helps customers in numerous ways. Of course, the CIO plays a direct role in these efforts, lending the department the top-down direction and resources it needs to support consumers. This sort of holistic, customer-focused operational outlook is now the industry standard, according to CIO.com. To stay competitive, businesses must get their IT teams involved.
“Compelling experiences, delivered digitally, separate [customer experience] winners from laggards. Firms that lead their industries on customer experience aggressively embrace business technologies to help win, serve, and retain customers – and they do so at rapid pace,” Sharyn Leaver, vice president and research director for Forrester Research, told the magazine. “This requires intense involvement from CIOs and their teams. Not at an arm’s length, but through ongoing collaboration and innovation.”
However, this transformation is not complete and will continue into the future. As consumer needs change – and they most assuredly will – IT departments will have to adjust further with help of their forward-thinking leaders. CIOs must be prepared to chart this new territory and use their managerial and technical skill sets to continually improve the customer experience.
Facilitating the DevOps approach
To produce products that facilitate positive customer experience, many organizations have adopted the DevOps approach. Now, DevOps personnel constitute more than one-quarter of IT staff rosters, according to survey data from the software firm Puppet and the DevOps research and assessment firm Dora. These individuals float between the enterprise IT and product development arenas, using their skills and knowledge to forge strong connections between backend systems and the front-facing applications that drive revenue.
CIOs push for success in this area, forming the internal links that make it possible for such contributors to navigate seemingly disparate areas of the business. These leaders also grease the runway for the larger cultural shifts that come along with DevOps strategy, including new hiring and recruitment strategies. Finally, CIOs work with their colleagues in the executive suite to develop companywide workflows that support this particular approach. Often times, IT leaders in this position must let go of more traditional operational notions and fully embrace process-based innovations designed to facilitate the DevOps methodology and, in doing so, produce revenue-building products fit for the modern marketplace, CIO Dive reported.
“Too often CIOs only automate specific IT disciplines. However, the services delivery chain spans multiple domains and when operated in functional silos, the execution of tasks can take days or weeks,” Steve Wallo, Chief Solutions Architect at the networking solutions company Brocade Federal, told the online publication. “This enables the creation of cross-domain workflows bridging IT silos and enabling split-second execution of tasks. The result is not only greater IT agility through automation by reducing human errors and increasing time-to-resolution, but gives each IT organization better value through overall collaboration.”
Recruiting and retaining cross-functional contributors
While automated systems can surely streamline DevOps strategies and lead to higher-quality products, skilled IT professionals remain the driving force behind corporate technology programs. Of course, most organizations realize this and allocate large amounts to recruitment, creating immense competition. CIOs are responsible for facing this crowded IT recruitment marketplace and pinpointing technical contributors who have the skills required to execute in a DevOps environment, according to the Enterprise Project. How?
First off, CIOs must be able to sell skilled IT professionals on the organization. This not only requires effective messaging but also great effort, as on-the-ground operations must reflect the collaborative DevOps environment described in the recruitment sales pitch. Of course, the duties of the CIO do not stop here. With talented workers in hand, these executives should work diligently to keep them engaged or risk losing them to other firms circling the IT recruitment waters.
Again, messaging is essential here, according to research from Puppet and Dora. The two businesses polled experts in the DevOps space and asked them to outline key actions taken by CIOs that support talent retention and sustainable production success. Respondents ranked vision-setting as the top duty. This means IT leaders hoping to keep strong contributors on board must develop and promote well-defined roadmaps to success.
However, the research also made clear the words cannot stand in for action. Respondents cited intellectual stimulation as another important talent retention duty of the CIO. In the IT world, this correlates to technical training. Young professionals in the field are especially passionate about on-the-job learning opportunities, as it puts them in line promotions and cutting-edge IT work. Of course, CIOs who develop and helm departments with DevOps environments and innovative product development workflows can provide such stimulating opportunities and, in turn, keep their most talented employees content and locked in.
“I always tell people, I guarantee you, after you’ve spent enough time with us and learned from our disciplines, you’ll be doing stuff you never thought you would be able to do,” Stephen Gold, CIO for CVS Health, told the Enterprise Project.
Preparing for a new enterprise IT environment
The era of the traditional CIO is quickly coming to a close. In fact, analysts at Gartner predict that half of the internal IT leaders who fail to transform to meet new organizational and marketplace expectations will lose their positions within the next three years. In short, burgeoning CIOs must adjust to these new realities and prepare themselves for integrated IT departments where they play an essential role in the revenue-generating web-based products that stock the online shelves.
Are you looking to meet this challenge and carve out a role in the cross-functional enterprise IT environment of tomorrow? Consider the online Master of Science in Management Information Systems program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Here, you can build on your technical knowledge while also developing the leadership skills needed to manage next-generation product development and internal IT operations as a CIO.
The online MS MIS program at UAB features six core courses, including Introduction to Business Intelligence and Technology Based Project Management, as well as leadership-focused concentration courses such as Technology Planning and Capital Budgeting, and Leadership in IT. Students can also take advantage of sessions dedicated to the Certified Information Systems Security Professional certification, a key credential for future CIOs who want to roll out products that not only meet the expectations of web-savvy consumers but also secure the sensitive corporate and personal data contained within them.
U.S. News and World Report ranked UAB’s Master of Science in Management Information Systems program among the top 20 Online Graduate Computer Information Technology programs. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency have designated UAB a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research.
Are you ready to begin your ascent up the modern IT hierarchy with an online MS MIS degree from UAB? Connect with an enrollment advisor today.
Recommended readings:
How One Degree Can Prepare You for a Variety of Careers
Career Outlooks: A Pulse on the Current Job Market
Sources:
1. https://www.gartner.com/binaries/content/assets/events/keywords/infrastructure-operations-management/iome5/gartner-predicts-for-it-infrastructure-and-operations.pdf
2. https://www.accenture.com/t20170329T022907Z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-12/Accenture-2016-04-06-CIO-Leadership-Required-New-World-Connected-Product-Development-Updated-Final.pdf#zoom=50
3. https://www.cio.com/article/3196370/cio-role/cio-career-coach-bringing-a-product-management-mindset-to-it.html
4. https://www.cio.com/article/2442702/innovation/the-cio-s-role-in-innovation.html
5. https://www.cio.com/article/3206645/analytics/why-cios-must-co-lead-cx-customer-experience.html
6. https://puppet.com/system/files/2017-06/2017-state-of-devops-report_3.pdf
7. https://www.ciodive.com/news/how-cios-can-leverage-devops/420171/
8. https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2017/6/4-habits-revenue-generating-cios-new-harvard-business-review-research
9. https://businessdegrees.uab.edu/mis-degree-masters/
10. https://businessdegrees.uab.edu/course-descriptions-msmis/