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Dubai: In today's world, some business executives still lack understanding of what technology can do to help them grow, most of them do realise they do not have enough technology, says research firm IDC.
"While managers may indeed be successful, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) can help them improve on success - which is one of the exciting opportunities for a CIO," said Frank Gens, IDC senior vice-president.
"To take that lead, CIOs need to have credibility as executives who understand the business issues, who understand the marketplace in which their company is playing. This makes them a hybrid executive - they bridge the space between technology and business," he added.
More than 120 top officials will participate in the IDC CIO Summit, to be held in the Middle East for the first time, in Dubai this month. The event will discuss the new demands for the CIOs and evolution of skills necessary for the position.
Many of the region's enterprises have yet to connect the surge in complexity to issues like productivity, overhead costs, employee alienation, and paradigm shifts in approaching IT - something CIOs must consider when designing a top-down IT strategy.
He says as an officer of the company, the CIO must stay in close touch with key managers and the challenges they face and be forever vigilant for the chance to find an IT or communications solution.
Among global 2,000 companies - which are arguably the world's most successful - probably between one half and two thirds have that support. Below the 2,000 level, that figure drops to below 50 per cent.
Pervasive transformation
This suggests that whether in the Middle East or somewhere else, you really need to maintain that support, as it opens the door to pervasive transformation, creating an environment where companies see and use technologies as a part their approach to their customers, their partners, the marketplace, operations - you name it.
He says it is also important to keep in mind that technology never stops. Existing technologies that have high price points always make price-performance improvements that put them in reach; new technologies or new uses for old technologies come on line; every year you see some company pioneer the use of a new combination of technologies.
"One thing I will address in my presentation on the post-disruption marketplace is how changing IT redefines strategy. Today, business initiatives depend on funding technology," said Gens.
This means investing in infrastructure, which increasingly includes not just facilities but servers, wireless solutions, backbone networks, routers - all those components that need updating and modernising.
"A CIO can point to all that and press C-level and line-of-business managers to think of it not as IT, but as a medium for business processes, an evolving foundation for innovation," he added.
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