The role of the chief information officer is ever-evolving, and many in the position must balance innovation with maintaining infrastructure and finding ways to lower costs.
The way CIOs see themselves and their roles compared to how line of business executives see them is very different, a study from the International Data Corporation has found.
The majority of line of business respondents, 41 percent, said they see CIOs as innovation officers; only 27.5 percent saw CIOs as operational. However, CIOs see themselves mostly as operational, about 41 percent, with 25.3 percent seeing themselves as innovation officers and 34 percent viewing themselves as service managers.
This shows a shift needs to occur for these executives in how they see their position. If they remain in an operational role and mindset, they will "find themselves further marginalized over the next three years," Mike Jennett, vice president of research for Enterprise Mobility in IDC's IT Executive Program, said in an announcement.
Ways for CIOs to make this change, according to the announcement, include:
- Creating new innovations through cross-functional partnerships
- Improving stable business services by including new technology services
- Include new culture and techniques into the IT group's culture
CIOs already are beginning to see the need to blend innovation with the day-to-day tasks of keeping systems secure and running.
"I actually feel now that my role is an active participant in the transformation of care and the way that healthcare is going from volume to value," Marc Chasin, M.D., CIO of St. Luke's Health System, told FierceHealthIT in an interview last month.
"The CIO is now an active member at the table," he said.
In addition, many CIOs told FierceHealthIT that in the year ahead they see issues such as consumerization, business and cybersecurity as top challenges to focus on.
"Call it meaningful execution," Aaron Miri, CIO at Dallas-based Walnut Hill Medical Center said. "The ever-increasing clinical demand and customer expectation versus the finite resource management and capacity that's available."
To learn more:
- here's the announcement
- get the report