Much more than just IT

The chief information officer’s role has become more important, but even a CIO can’t always keep pace with change

As technology shifts the way business is done in a modern economy, decision-makers in organisations are forced to confront greater challenges.

“What we see is a tension between technology and business,” says Daniel Acton, regional tech lead for cloud at Google SA.

“Even with customers, there’s a duality. You have people who care about the technology and how we run stuff; then we have people who care about the money and the business – and we don’t see those working together much,” Acton says.

The people at the coalface of this tension are chief information officers, a role no longer confined to delivering IT. CIOS now have input into formulating business strategy.

This expanded role and influence comes as tech becomes more important for a company’s future.

Keeping up with the fast pace of change is also a problem. Even CIOS themselves can be accused of not knowing or understanding the technology used in their organisations.

Acton says: “We must be fair to CIOS. They probably did have a technical background – 30 years ago. But Moore’s Law dictates the pace of technology innovation: 30 years in real terms is many millennia in technology terms.”

So what services are companies buying?

With more organisations choosing to outsource the management and storage of data through cloud computing, CIOS are now concerned about where that data is kept, its security and privacy, says Shai Morgan, head of Google cloud for Sub-saharan Africa.

Firms want a secure space to store this data and, increasingly, this service is outsourced.

Acton says the need to innovate is pushing local firms to upgrade their infrastructure to reduce costs, save time and maximise efficiency.

Then there is smart analytics. With data driving much decision-making, machine learning and artificial intelligence are being used to gain insights which can help build strategies for future products and services.