point

October - 2014 - issue > CIO Insights

Today, CIO's job is exciting than ever before

By Darshan Appayanna, Chief Information & Knowledge Officer, Happiest Minds Technologies
Monday, November 24, 2014
By Darshan Appayanna, Chief Information & Knowledge Officer, Happiest Minds Technologies
Happiest Minds Technologies is a 2011 founded Bangalore based IT company providing services on disruptive technologies.

Many a times I am asked a question about how relevant is a CIO in an IT services organisation or for that matter, how can a CIO stay relevant in any organisation. My response every time states that the question is not about how relevant a CIO is, but how can a CIO change to be relevant in a fast evolving enterprise technology landscape.

Today, a CIO can play a critical role, if the cards are played right, to influence the strategic direction of a company. His foremost contribution is through being the voice in the board room for making the enterprise more efficient via investment in the 'right' kind of technology and optimising it. Secondly, his vision is pivotal in reducing time to market for new products by connecting the missing dots from R&D to manufacturing to supply chain processes. Thirdly, pragmatic CIOs will partner with business heads so that the best technologies can be deployed having a buy-in from the business stakeholders as well.

Consumerisation of IT and BYOD has brought in winds of change even in the most traditional organisations. With rapid proliferation of mobile and social technologies, even internal consumers are forcing a re-think of enterprise technologies being used. The challenge or I would rather call it an opportunity for CIOs given the short development and deployment cycles is to be abreast of these technologies, evaluating diligently and bringing up the most promising ones in the board room. In fact, more and more technology adoption are driven by the marketing and business teams using social and mobile technologies to reach out to the customers. If a CIO is not able to stay ahead of changing trends, business users will bypass the CIOs to adopt the technologies they see more useful.

For an IT services company focused on disruptive technologies, our internal IT is in a way, a measure of our capabilities and expertise in choosing the 'right' technologies that fit well in to the 'SMAC' world we inhabit. When Happiest Minds Technologies started, we were looking for the most efficient, effective and advanced communication and collaboration solution. It was imperative that as the Head of Technology, I present the 'right' solution that not only meets our operational and strategic needs but also represents the services we offer. Hence after an in-depth evaluation, we decided on using a cloud based email communication, collaboration and file sharing solution as this was a platform which would help us stay ahead of the curve with regards to usability, technology adaption and ease of use.


Share on Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Share on facebook