Newsletter

Decisions CIOs Shouldn't Make Alone

The nature of being a chief information officer is one of change. In an earlier Tip and Trick, we discussed the evolution of the data center manager or CIO, adding businessperson expertise to existing technowizard credentials. As a peer to the other departments in the organization, indeed, as a good manager, you will take a certain amount of initiative and make many, many independent decisions. But there are some IT-intensive decisions that you want to bring other players into, if only by reason of potential capital expenditures or impacts on the business.

The first to consider is the development of your strategic IT plans. Strategic plans, by their very nature, are long term and likely to impact every department in the enterprise. The commitment of time and budget are over time as well. Getting a strategic investment granted will probably involve lining up all the stakeholders (senior management team) as supporters and contributors to the vision.

Another to consider can be a very significant business decision, outsourcing. Outsourcing an IT function could have many advantages: lower costs, scalability without capital expenditures and the like. There are also disadvantages: cultural differences, differing senses of urgency, indirect supervision, and oversight. If your business judgment, as a data center manager concludes that the advantages outrun the disadvantages, it is worth the time to consult with the appropriate peers and superiors to assess risk versus reward. Knowledgeable support from the IT organization itself would be worthwhile to make sure that the details of the function will not contribute to failure. In any event, get your colleagues to be on the same page.