The economic slowdown has accelerated enterprise transformation and India is now shifting into focusing on newer strategies for Management and IT. The Role of a CIO is no more restricted to handling IT issues; they are slowly becoming the Key Business Drivers. The role of a CIO has changed from being an information officer to being an innovative officer.

What are our CIOs busy doing? What are the challenges they face today? How do they get maximum ROI for their organization? IT management can become saturated by supply-side thinking, what will the IT industry offer next and ‘how best to assimilate that?’ has become a major concern for CIOs today.

Chandrasekaran N, Director- Information Technology and strategic advisor (CIO), Ashok Leyland says, “The CEOs and the Boards no more look at IT as support system, but one that would help in establishing competitive edge in the market place. And the expectation is not “when” would the ROI yield be but “how” would it manifest. It is through an order of magnitude improvement in productivity & analysis in finger tips to be able to make the right business decisions”.

Vijay Sethi, VP – IS and CIO, Hero Honda, says, “The first priority of CIOs all over the world would be the alignment of IT to the business needs of the company. If investment in new technology is aligned with business needs, ROI increases, otherwise it can even be zero.”

Yogesh Kumar Sharma, Head ERP/Group CIO, Jindal Drilling, says, “The main prong of our IT strategy is in innovation of existing processes and acquiring the latest technologies. Innovation is a continuous process at Jinal. Process Optimization helps align IT to business. This helps save expenses on manpower, time and hardware. This usually happens after a scramble to meet a delivery or a crisis. Also, if returns are calculated on a longer time frame, ROI is substantial.”