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CIOs need to step up as technology fuses business and IT

10th September 2015

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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As disruptive information technologies (IT) transform the strategies and operational models of businesses, the role of the CIO is evolving rapidly and, with integration at the core of its mission, CIOs need to assume the role of “chief integration officer” and bring technology conversations into the boardroom.

The technology trends outlined in Deloitte’s sixth 'Tech Trends' report, published on Thursday, showed a clear shift in how technology was used within organisations, with indications that it was no longer business as usual.

Within the next 18 to 24 months technology would disrupt the way businesses engaged their customers, how work was done and how markets and industries evolved.

Speaking to Engineering News Online, Deloitte Africa technology leader Kamal Ramsingh said it had become increasingly difficult to separate business strategy from technology and, as a result, CIOs, acting as “integration officers”, could serve as the “critical link” between the business strategy and the IT agenda.

CIOs could also assist in identifying, vetting and applying emerging technologies to the ever-evolving business roadmap and ensure the company’s executives and board were aware of what technology was already in place and what could be done to leverage it.

“Many leaders are dealing with historic and legacy perceptions of technology. We need to change that,” he said, pointing to the need for CIOs to get executives “on board” and sensitised to the technology already in use in their organisations.

“While the CIO position continues to evolve with integration at the core of its mission, there is still a significant lag on the continent [in terms of] CIOs becoming very strategic. It is time for the CIO to step into this mode and become involved in the business and not just be passive technologists,” Ramsingh said.

“It is more business than technology.”

The 'Tech Trends' report suggested CIOs build on their capabilities, put their internal technology “houses” in order, leverage advances in science and emerging technologies to drive innovation and “reimagine” their own roles to focus less on technology management and more on business strategy.

“As a CIO, you are either petrified right now or really excited,” Ramsingh commented, referring to the significant shifts in their roles.

Other top seven emerging technology trends for 2015 included 'ambient computing', 'core renaissance' and the 'IT worker of the future'.

Core renaissance represented the significant investments companies have made into their core systems, which could form the foundation for growth and new service development – in effect, building on the standardised data and automated business processes and revamping legacy infrastructure to enable innovative new services and offerings.

Ambient computing represented the backdrop of the sensors, devices, intelligence and agents that enabled the Internet of Things to work.

The “millennials” entering the workforce and their expectations of employment would require organisations to “cultivate a new species” in the IT worker of the future whose habits, incentives and skills were inherently different from those currently in play.

The application programming interface, or API economy, dimensional marketing, software-defined everything and amplified intelligence were among the remaining technology trends of the year.

“However, this does not mean decision-makers need to blindly start implementing technology to solve their business challenges. Many of these trends need to be experimented with,” Ramsingh concluded.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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