Challenges & Opportunities for CIOs in 2015 Date:   Thursday , February 26, 2015 TVS Motor Company Limited (BSE: 532343, NSE: TVSMOTOR) is a part of TVS Group that manufactures motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and auto rickshaws in India. With a market cap of Rs 146.42 billion, the company has been a major player in the automotive sector since 1978. Today\'s CIOs and IT departments are at the cross-road. On the one hand, digitization and globalization make the technology more critical than ever, IT capability becomes the competitive differentiator.Information/data just penetrate into every corner of their organization and our human society. On the other hand, the latest technology such as cloud/social computing unleash the potential to decentralize the enterprise, and democratize our working environment. Will IT be left out or more strategic focused and mission critical in an organization? Here is listed the top challenges facing in today\'s CIO as well opportunities. Substantial opinions are based on my experience as CIO for 15 years and more importantly as a business manager for 18 years. Challenges: 1.Business value realization Business value realization is an important agenda for CIO. If one can set aside the maintenance function of CIO (keeping the lights on), most of the initiatives in IT are executed through projects. Every project has objective, budget, time plan and benefits to bring to the organization. The benefits will be in the nature of topline or bottom line growth, market share gain, quality improvement and so on. The success on any IT projects is in its business value realization and institutionalization of improved activities and not just merely implementation. This understanding every CIO should have in order to be respected in the organization. Ideas for IT projects can come from business colleagues or from IT team. Successful CIO realizes that every project bring credibility based on its outcome. At the same time after institutionalization those projects become one of the hygiene activity of keeping the lights on. Establishing business value realization will not only help IT to move towards profit center but also helps in taking the department into the next level of CMF. That is managing IT function like business. A quarterly or annual report on IT value creation to CEO or Board level will help. 2.Rapid change in technology Rapid change in technology is a major challenge as before even proper adoption the next technology is in place. This poses stability and cost issues in the organization besides confusion. But every new technology resets the level playing field and it is very risky if not handled smartly. 3.IT users becoming more IT savvy IT is accountable for outcome but should listen to everyone\'s view before decision making. This delay the IT deployment and poor cooperation with views aren\'t accepted. 4.Shadow IT Shadow IT is a term often used to describe IT systems and IT solutions built and used inside organizations without explicit organizational approval. It is also used, along with the term \"Stealth IT,\" to describe solutions specified and deployed by departments other than the IT department. If shadow IT is strong in an organization, it will pose major challenges in terms of continuity, compliance, cost and other issues. 5.Criticized for absence but not praised for presence IT folks are often remembered by business folks only when something isn\'t working. When business accepts percent of defects or PPM of defects, they expect 100 percent quality from IT. However if the application, datacenter or network work without any downtime for years (that may even work out to part per billion defects – PPB). Also business may expect anybody in IT should solve any problem because they see IT as one unit. Understanding of specialization within IT is not understood. Here CIO should constantly communicate to the business of developments, specializations and values. 6.IT talent management As the specialization grows, managing and retaining talent gains importance. A structured approach in defining IT organization, specialization, accreditation and recognition will help. Today IT needs to have specialized in not only applications, datacenter and networking but also on analytics, video, surveillance, advanced threat, mobility, social networking and so on. 7.Security, IT governance, Risk and Compliance This challenge need not be over emphasized. With stronger emergence of IT Act, Security, IT Governance and Compliance gain more importance. As IT becomes the lifeline of the organization, ensuring secured IT for business exploitation is a gold standard. Opportunities 1.Digitizing enterprise One can\'t imagine an integrated process or a function that doesn\'t touch IT or enabled through IT. Having got embedded in business, IT as function will stay for decades to come and go more and more complicated at backend and go simpler and simpler on frontend and usage. CIO can capitalize on this trend. The success is on not mastering the technology but on right fit of technology into business. Domain knowledge is the key. 2.Level playing field is reset with new technology This is equally an opportunity and risk. Faster adoption of technology will make CDO (Chief digital officer) work under CIO who possess business knowledge along with Technology. 3.Internet of Things IoT can bring automation, quality control and traceability in manufacturing. The potential is to bring at least 10 times of cost reduction in business over conventional value engineering and value analysis. 4.Consumerization of IT This brings simplicity in operation and user adoption. In 1990 and 2000s many ERP and IT projects failed in adoption mainly because it failed to bring simplicity in operations. 5.SMAC Social network, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud bring huge opportunity for IT penetration and business value creation. Managerial and leadership qualities required 1.Business orientation Modern CIOs are 60 percent business manager and 40 percent technology managers. Getting a right fit of technology on time is the order of the day. 2.Accountable CIOs should own all digital initiatives in an organization and get emotionally attached. Great CIOs hold themselves and their teams accountable to delivering strong results. Those results should be manifested through the use of metrics. That which gets measured gets done, so it is essential that the CIO measure the performance of people, infrastructure, governance, the health of the relationship with the rest of the organization, and the performance of external vendor partners. This will also ensure business value orientation and help in prioritizing the projects. 3.Curious Given the pace of change in IT, which has never been greater, CIOs must remain curious, always investigating new technologies and new processes that might enhance IT\'s and the company\'s performance. IT must have a research and development mentality as it thinks about new technologies, and that begins with the CIO.