Short-Term Thinking Has Merits

IT executives generally are less concerned with what title they'll have in the future than how much support they'll get from the business side and how to keep pace with ever-faster business cycles.

At a recent roundtable discussion hosted by Optimize and the New Jersey chapter of the Society for Information Management, Joe DaLuz, VP and CIO at Computer Horizons, said shorter technology cycles mean "we're no longer tied to three- to five-year plans" so that businesses are less locked into products and even strategies. "We're done with big-bang ERP," he said. "Our major concern is how to optimize the value of the company."

Shorter-term thinking makes businesses more nimble, participants said. Outsourcing contracts can be as short as six months, and one- to three-year engagements are typical, DaLuz said.

But thinking in terms of immediate business needs requires a change in mind-set, said James Lee, a consultant and former IT-strategy executive at Tyco. For example, governance is a bigger concern to CIOs than in the past, and managing and integrating technology throughout a company is critical, Lee said.

SOX and other regulatory mandates have empowered CIOs to address some business issues more directly, and that may have helped elevate their stature. They oversee performance management systems and measure worker productivity--areas of great relevance to line-of-business managers and corporate growth.

Working in cross-business teams is increasingly common, panelists said. And one theme is clear: Businesses must serve the customer in a consolidated way, and a key person--knowledgeable in process, technology, and business--is needed to envision and execute on that goal, whatever his or her title may be.

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