Chief information officer (CIO), chief digital information officer (CDIO) 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 thechief executive officer, chief operating officer or chief financial
officer. In military organizations, they report to the commanding officer. The Chief Information Officer
role was first defined[1] in 1981 by William R. Synnott, former Senior Vice President of the Bank of
Boston, and William H. Gruber, former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.[2]
Contents
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1The need for CIOs
2Roles and responsibilities
3Risks involved
4Information technology
5Distinction between CIO, CDO and CTO
6See also
7References
8External links

The need for CIOs[edit]

CIOs or CDOs form a key part of any business that utilises technology and data. In recent times, it
has been identified that an understanding of just business or IT is deficient.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] 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[edit]

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.[6] 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.[7] 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. Paul Burfitt, former CIO of AstraZeneca also
outlines the CIOs role of IT governance, which he refers to as the clarifying of accountability and
the role of committees.[8]

Risks involved[edit]
As the CIO has a large number of responsibilities such as provision of finance, recruitment of
professionals and development of policy and strategy, the risks are consequently vast. The CIO of
U.S company Target was forced into resignation in 2014 after the theft of 40 million credit card
details and 70 million customer details by hackers.[9] CIOs carry out a large number of roles and
therefore the chance of failure is very high. In this way, any CIO must be knowledgeable about the
industry so they can adapt and reduce the chance of error.

Information technology[edit]
Information technology and its systems have become so important that the CIO has come to be
viewed in many organizations as a key contributor in formulatingstrategic goals for an organization.
The prominence of the CIO position has greatly risen as information, and the information technology
that drives it, has become an increasingly important part of the modern organization. Many CIOs are
adding additional c-level titles to reflect the growing importance of technology in successfully running
companies; this trend is referred to as the CIO-plus. 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.[10] 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.
In 2012, Gartner Executive Programs conducted a global CIO survey and received responses from
2,053 CIOs from 41 countries and 36 industries.[11] Gartner reported that survey results indicated that
the top ten technology priorities for CIOs for 2013 were analytics and business intelligence, mobile

technologies, cloud computing, collaboration technologies, legacy modernization, IT

management, customer relationship management, virtualization, security, and enterprise resource
planning.
CIO magazine's "State of the CIO 2008" survey asked 558 IT leaders who they report to. The results
were: CEO (41%), CFO (23%), COO (16%), Corporate CIO (7%) and Other (13%).[12]
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 anEnterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) system which typically has wide-ranging implications for most organizations.
Another way that the CIO role is changing is an increased focus on service
management.[13] 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, CDO and CTO[edit]

The roles of Chief Information Officer, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Technology Officer are
commonly blurred. Tom Silver, the North American senior vice president for Dice, states that CTOs
are concerned with technology itself, whereas CIOs are much more concerned with its applications
in the business and how this can be managed.[14]
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 focus on
how different technology can make the company more profitable.[15]
The traditional definition of CTOs focused on using technology as an external competitive advantage
now includes CDOs who use the power of modern technologies, online design and big data to
digitalise a business.