By Cat Yong
Not only is IT being viewed as a cost centre, it has to vie for dollars with other divisions in an organisation like marketing, R&D, innovation and to some extent also manufacturing.
The finance department views IT with this categorisation, but there is a lot of technology, that fall outside the domain of IT, as well. This leads to increasing challenges when it comes to delineating what the domain or jurisdiction of the CIO is, according to John Roberts, Gartner’s Research VP and Distinguished Analyst.
For example in oil and gas, plant control systems are increasingly using Microsoft-based operating systems – do the potential security threats associated with IT technology like operating systems, warrant it being looked at by the CIO?
Roberts said, “There is a bit of debate going on about, ‘”Is this something that CIOs should manage?” Certainly, it needs coordinated governance and planning and clear accountabilities. But who is responsible for making sure that all these diverse systems, has an overview of what’s secure and what’s not.
Roberts also shared that there are some instances in utilities companies, where CIOs and IT are taking responsibility for the support of applications that used to be run by engineers. This may be because critical national infrastructures like a nation’s electricity grid cannot afford the downtime from a hacker attack, for example.
“IT isn’t necessarily (getting involved now) to run the systems, but to provide support and security like patches, upgrades and other technical support capabilities. The operating unit (engineers) will still run the systems,” Roberts clarified.
IT’s varying strategic importance
Depending upon the strategic importance of IT to a particular industry, what the integration of IT and business is called, or the level of integration between the two, could vary.
Roberts viewed that an example of an organisation that spends most on IT is big banks. He said, “You can no longer separate the business process from the technology capability. You go to an ATM terminal, go online and can’t say now, ‘I’m dealing with business’ or ‘I’m dealing with technology.’
“In those kinds of organisations, increasingly we are seeing the CIO effectively becoming the COO. Because you can’t separate business and IT, they are one and the same.”
Roberts also shared that across multiple organisations, Gartner sees about 30% of CIOs also have responsibility for business process design.
He explained, “Because if you think about the increasingly automated business processes, someone has to do that integration of process and technology. They are not the only option, but CIOs can certainly work closely with the person who is involved in business redesign.”
On the other end of the spectrum, IT may very well just be and remain as a back office function, Roberts also further opined.
