CIO 2.0
September 4, 2008 by Raj Sheelvant
Nortel’s CIO Steven J. Bandrowczak’s writes in his blog titled ‘The Changing Role of CIO’ “… the reliable and secure communications technology is vital in a marketplace where the workforce is becoming increasingly mobile. In this new culture of connectivity, CIOs have an opportunity to make a difference in their company’s strategy and embrace this challenge, or risk being left behind as competitors passes them by.” He says that a recent survey by Nortel Networks Ltd. completed with IDC finds that in less than five years up to 40 percent of the workforce will be hyperconnected, demanding everywhere, all-the-time communications. According to the IDC study, two-thirds of the individuals surveyed use text or instant messaging for both work and personal use, and more than one in three organizations use social networks and online communities for some form of internal or external communication. He writes that CIOs must find ways to leverage tools, such as unified communications, and modify personnel policies, security regimes, and overall business practices to turn the challenges of hyperconnectivity into opportunities that drive bottom-line results.
I think this ability to leverage Web 2.0 to achieve IT alignment with the businesses is vital to the survival of the organization in the future. I am happy to see some of the CIOs are seeing this trend from their vantage point. The ability to innovate and design by leveraging the collaborative technology is a key that will enable organizations to succeed in this hypercompetitive globalized environment.
This also calls for a new breed of CIOs who are not only willing to explore and leverage these new collaborative technologies, but also are ‘risk takers’ and are willing to implement collaborative infrastructure so as to create a competitive advantages for their organization. Enterprises can no longer ignore the strong combination of SOA and Web 2.0 patterns given many incumbents are being radically upstaged, but companies such as YouTube, Facebook and Myspace are disrupting existing business models in record time. CIOs in other traditional organizations like banking, manufacturing etc must be closely evaluating these ‘disruptive’ technologies and the impact they are going to have on the existing business model. There are several challenges that have to be tackled to transform an Enterprise into Enterprise 2.0. The way the security, data privacy, accountability and prioritization are handled within the organization will dramatically shift.
Enterprise 2.0 will force CIOs to manage IT and IT department in a radically new way because the core of Web 2.0 is built on a foundation of open collaboration and communication that blur network boundaries and increases risk. The organization culture has to change. More than that, IT department leadership and project management technique will also have to evolve to accommodate this new organization.
Get ready for some ‘creative disruption’ within the IT department. CIOs and the IT department that are resistant to these changing environment will become extinct. Get ready to embrace Enterprise 2.0. Get ready for the changing role of CIO… Get ready for CIO 2.0
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