Why the 'i' in CIO now means innovation

David Bicknell

12 months ago 0 Comments

The number of possible descriptions for the CIO or IT managers role, and how it is going to evolve, are many and varied.

The word 'innovation' is never far away, and although the words innovation and government have perhaps never easily sat together, IT managers are having to put their innovation hat on, as this blog details. Although the blog focuses on the US, its arguments could perhaps equally apply to the UK. Or elsewhere.

The blog argues that the rise of the Internet in the mid-1990s created an opening for CIOs to move from an era of what was then data processing to one of innovating government operations. CIOs were charged with making those operations better through modernisation and innovation. “Implement (the) possibilities” was one description offered.

That approach disappeared during the recession, when organisations' focus was on cost-cutting and 'doing more with less', a description that has been universally applied and which IT departments in both the public and private sectors, have had to deliver.

Now, the 'doing more with less' mantra is steadily being replaced by an updated approach that calls for things to be done differently, while doing them quickly, smartly and sustainably.

The chief information officer is on the way to becoming the chief innovation officer, although that does necessarily mean less of a role for information, because it continues to be the lifeblood of organisations.

As the blog points out, the task at hand is in finding effective answers to a difficult but important question: What’s next?

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