What does your CIO really need to know?

• Author: Mechling, Jerry
• Position: Commentary

Chief information officers are responsible for information technology, so that's what they need to know, right?

Well, yes, partly. They need to understand technology enough to decide on infrastructure, operations, and staff. They need to supply technology that delivers on promises. They need to maintain legitimacy "down and in:

However, as technologies grow exponentially more productive, CIOs also need to build relationships "up and out: They need to show how IT can contribute to major organizational goals and strategy; they need to earn a role as a trusted member of the leadership team.

In that context, here's what your CIO really needs to know:

1. How information technology shapes goals and strategy

   Fundamentally, work is a series of if then steps. If you've worked a certain number of hours with a known rate and deductions, then calculating your paycheck is straightforward. If the data can be objectively codified, computers can do most of the work for you, once programmed to follow the routine.

   This was true even when computing power represented a significant expense--but only for high-volume, well-structured operations. Think payroll again or, more generally, accounting. Computerization was automation, infrastructure was limited, and applications were rigid, typically taking years to implement. Computerization was often cost-effective, but rarely a strategic concern for the organization as a whole.

   Over the past 20 years, however, skyrocketing productivity has generated applications for less-frequent and less-structured work: The data and analysis required for medical research, or to enable battlefield awareness, is much different than for payroll. To enable new and strategic applications, infrastructure and computer skills have now become mandatory and pervasive: The Internet has weaved increasingly powerful and ubiquitous connections around the globe. Serious applications can be built within a few months and then flexibly modified as new needs emerge; look at Wikipedia and YouTube.

   Fundamentally, we've shifted from technology usable only after routines have been well established to using technology as a primary agent of change for all sorts of social, economic and political innovations.

   This makes it important for CIOs to know how technology can shape goals and implementation within and across programs, agencies, jurisdictions, and industries. We can't find the best opportunities anymore by looking down and in; we also need the...