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Chennai , Sept. 19

FOUR CIOs (chief information officers) representing different sectors - beverage, pharmaceutical, automobile and manufacturing — but they all shared a common concern and challenge facing them - how to align themselves, as CIOs, with business?

"The role of a CIO is like a chameleon. We need to often change colour and align with that of the organisation's task and vision. We are paid to do that. However, to make that happen, we need to broker, cajole and be diplomatic. We should also think out of the box to get things done in a firm," said Mr Vikram Srihari, CIO, Coca-Cola India, at Connect2003, the conference on information technology being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, here today.

Says Mr Sachdev Ramakrishna, CIO, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, there is a major digital divide between CEOs (chief executive officers) and CIOs. They do not often see eye-to-eye. Unless the gap between technology and business is bridged, use of technology in a firm would not bring the expected results - improved productivity of people and systems, in turn resulting in company's profitability. In successful organisations, there is always an alignment between the CEO and CIOs, he said.

"We are entering an era of innovation where real improvement in hardware, software and devices will deliver capacities beyond our imagination. However, most of our employees are trying to figure out how to indent a paragraph," he said. Is it the job of a CIO to supply a box, say sales force automation application, when demanded by a marketing department? No. The role of a CIO should be beyond that. He should be sitting along with the marketing department to chalk out the strategy to enhance the productivity of sales force - for instance, using a hand-held device to improve productivity. A CIO in an organisation should be a strategist, business adviser, asset manager and architect, he said.

According to Mr S.R. Balasubramanian, Vice-President, Information Systems, Hero Honda Motors Ltd, the CIO needs to assume complete responsibility for carrying out reforms in an organisation, and at times act on behalf of the CEO in some of the decision making process. Often people in an organisation want an SCM (supply chain management), a CRM (customer relationship management) or a data warehousing.

"There is a considerable hype along with these terms. Some of the personnel do not even understand what all terms mean," he said.

Mr Mani B. Mulki, General Manager, Information Systems, Godrej Industries Ltd, said with IT budgets getting reduced coupled with cost and competitive pressures for an organisation, the concerns for a CIO are "When there is so much of technology available in the market, how do I spend on the right technology? How can technology be deployed smartly? How can technology be used to achieve meaningful gains, in synchronisation with that of organisation's priorities? Finally, how do I align IT with business?" ends

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