Are you a CIO? Then, you have to drive changes at all levels of your business. Use Roadmap Planner to determine the initiatives, priorities and timing needed to effect the changes and not to miss a point. Get a live document that can be updated throughout the way and revised at the end of each stage of your plan.
Almost every modern chief information officer aims to develop a strategic relevance to his organization. Relevance is a fundamental because technology development is extensively proliferating IT into business processes, units and corporate functions, like retail, marketing and finance. The innovation and transforming is happening in these fields, and new technologies are at the center of a lot of it.
Hence, the role of CIOs is changing upward. If a decade ago, they were concerned mostly with IT infrastructure, today, they face a number of challenges, like user desires for mobility and usability. Thus, it makes CIO more visible to the rest of the business. Their relationship with the CEO and the rest of the board is changing too, as CIO now has much more to say regarding the direction the business should take.
The main four points on how a CIO can contribute strategically are the following:
1. Earn credibility as a reliable service provider
You have to earn your stripes, first. Win credibility as a professional who delivers every day. This is a key point to be able to take the next step in the relationship with the board, especially in the era of trust deficit.
2. Learn the business profoundly well
Successful CIOs must be much more aligned with their company’s business than ever before.Thus, you are to get deep knowledge about the way your business works. Do whatever it takes to become an expert in this field so you can speak the language your CEO does, and truly understand his point of view. Listen and have a two-way dialogue with the top-management team of the company.
3. Keep up with the latest technology
Rely on experts, both internal and external to your organization, to help you to keep up with what is possible technologically. Pick up nuggets of insight from your Chief Technology Officer about infrastructure, servers, and networks. Do the same with other C-levels. Investigate the market, and look at other industries, noticing the great things they do.
4. Help the organization to decide on a strategic direction
It is the responsibility of the CIO to initiate a strategic conversation, offering innovations to move the organization to a new level. However, the true innovation is a very risky business. On the other hand, to be successful, you have to take some risk. It’s the most fun, it has the most reward, and it does make a difference. Be part of those conversations, and explain why your opinion counts.
A roadmap to success
Yet, it is far easier said than done. Executing the four-step program requires infrastructure, process, people, and technology. In other words, it points out the necessity of the developing a roadmap for CIO to cover every detail.
First of all, with a roadmap, you will clearly see where your organization is now. Being a part of the strategy development process, it is essential for you to have a vision of the current situation. This will help you to decide at what point you should make changes, and what direction to choose.
Roadmap Planner is just what you need here. It is your primary mechanism to plan, share, monitor, and update initiatives. With this smart planning utility, you will be able to showcase your ideas, vision, and, what is very important, the progress that is being made.
Roadmap Planner allows you to translate the high-level strategy of the company to all stakeholders, including PR, marketing and financial departments. During meetings or brainstormings, you can easily involve senior business leaders to prioritize projects and manage dependencies between tasks, as well as make a draft of ideas in the backlog, so that they can be added to the project when it is the right time.
Now when you know Roadmap Planner perfectly meets your needs, go for it and be sure your ideas will never escape a C-level notice.