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Subramanian Chittur, Head-IT, Metro Cash & Carry says that the most important and imperative skills that the future CIOs need to acquire are many which would enable them to match the expectations of the organization.
Some of them would obviously revolve around:
- Business acumen business plan preparation & strategic competence
- Assessment of solution life-cycleand impact on business objectives.
- Deep knowledge of technology & infrastructure
- Large scale project management
- Networking, communication & people management- leadership
Where are the gaps?
There are a few gaps that the future CIOs need to bridge with some learning.
- Clear understanding of business and processes and vision into future trends
- Updatingselfwith new technologies
- Ability to innovate and bring cost effectiveness at the same time
It is important to work closerto businessleadersand take deep interest in operations and involve business leaders in IT symposiums.Regular product assessments and case study handling on frequent a basis is a must. Keep effective and continued think tank on areas to innovate and derive commercial feasibility
Vendor Management Skills
Future CIOs need to devise new strategies in managing vendors given the changes that are happening in procurement formats.
- Frequent evaluation of vendors
- Keeping the connect vendor relationship ensure you have constant feedback mechanism
- Keep in touch with market for prices and products
- Negotiate periodically, for win-win situation
- Plan for longer solution life cycle to bring back ROI- evolve the vendor and product selection around that
Analyse current stage of business in terms of its life cycle: Choose vendor/technology on scalability if the business is in infant or growth phase. For business values with shorter span go for outsourcing or service model and reduce the capital expenditure
Key stakes to tap the right role
It is beyond doubt that the future CIOs need to have deep insights into network and infrastructure, experience in managing multiple projects, experience with implementing and managing end-to-end SDLC and service level management and strategic competence and vendor management.
As a team management initiative, they need to throw more challenges to the team and let the team come up with solutions and ideas. Be a mentor and coach than a director. Combine business with pleasure and make the workplace a fun place to work.
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