Analysis: Has the "CIO" reached the end of the line?

The role of the CIO and IT director has once again come under the spotlight following the silicon.com CIO Forum last week with the question being asked whether the IT function should even be under the control of someone with a technology background.

Former CIO and silicon.com columnist Rene Carayol, claims it is "easier to teach a business person about technology than it is to teach a technologist about business". This essentially asserts the theory that IT people continue to fall short of the business skills needed to carry enough respect and influence in the boardroom.

But there are also questions about the fundamental need for a CIO or IT director to act as this bridge between "the business" and "the IT department" with some arguing it needs a COO-type role to end this continuing introspection and isolation of the technologists from the rest of the business.

Jon Collins, analyst at Quocirca, claims the CIO role has come as far as it can and that the debate over the IT/business divide will continue as long as the CIO exists. Collins argues the role needs to be redefined as more of a services manager to encompass both in-house and outsourced use of technology.

"Things do not stop there - some outsourcing is process-based, and the role needs to cover this as well. Maybe it should be subsumed into the chief operating officer's (COO) role, but that is a long way off," he said.

Graham Yellowley, IT director at Mitsubishi Securities International, was one who agreed that business people tend to have the edge over technologists in terms of the skills needed to be a proper CIO.

"There are a number of individuals who can sit over both business and technology but these days they are generally businessmen rather than technologists," he said.

Others argue that business versus IT debate is irrelevant and Kevin Fitzpatrick, CTO at Manpower, said the question is whether companies want a "manager" or a "leader". Phillip Jones, CTO at easyGroup, agreed.

"In my experience, companies place a higher premium on leadership than knowledge," said Jones. "The diversity of a general management career equips individuals with leadership skills to adapt to new knowledge areas, whether operations, finance, marketing, HR or IT, and environments, whether new business units or markets. Seeking career diversity outside their core knowledge area would better equip IT professionals to ascend to the executive level."

In the silicon.com CIO Jury this week, however, the majority of CIOs put up a robust defence of their role with many claiming IT project failures are often the result of uninformed meddling of business people and accountants in the process.

David Jemitus, head of IT for the Government Planning Portal, said: "There are good people with a business background who pick up enough technology understanding to do both well. However, business and IT senior management are littered with idiots who are not the best business people but believe misguidedly that they understand IT and can right its wrongs. Such people should carry a health warning."

JP Rangaswami, global CIO at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, said the distinction between business people and technologists is false.

"The implications of globalisation, disintermediation and teamwork are such that everyone needs an acute understanding of technology directions and shifts. I think the implications of new organisational models, new governance models such as SOX, and new technology models actually bias the odds in favour of competent 'technologists', since emerging technology underpins each of those models," he said.

Frank Coyle, IT director at John Menzies Distribution meanwhile talked of the "carnage" left by accountants who believe they can run the IT function, which then has to be picked up by the IT professionals.

There is also a whole other debate about whether it is the "business people" who have to make more effort to understand IT or whether IT needs to become more business aware.

Mark Foulsham, head of IT at eSure, said: "The business community is now more IT literate by necessity than it has ever been. Businesses rely on effective IT and without sufficient technology knowledge their executives cannot make comprehensive tactical decisions. IT professionals have not become correspondingly more business-savvy. The gap between business and IT remains - but its position has shifted."

Ultimately others concluded that the success, or failure, of the CIO role often just comes down to the individual and the organisation - a point ably summed up by Peter Dew, CIO at BOC.

"Good business people make good business people irrespective of their professional background. IT is no different, or any more complex than other professions," he said.