Final Essay

Developing alignment between CIO and CEO

“AN EXERCISE IN MUTUAL FRUSTRATION is being repeated in boardrooms around the world. It plays out as follows: a CEO demands dramatic change. Within two to three years, he argues, the company must cut its time to market, boost efficiency, and offer more customized service. In all of this, of course, new information systems will play a crucial role. But the head of Information Technology -- the CIO -- responds to these proposals by explaining that the required systems changes cannot be completed in less than five to seven years. When questioned, the CIO also admits that the new systems will not be any easier to change than the existing ones. An uncomfortable silence descends.” This quote by Feld,

The IT director is situated under the Finance director causing already a misalignment between IT and the CEO as described by McCambridge, R. (2013) suggesting that IT is purely an operational necessity with the emphasis on utilizing IT as cutting cost. A first step is realigning IT director directly under the Superintendent to help bridge the gap between IT and the agency. This would signal to the rest of the organization that IT is on the same level as the rest of the executive management team and would hold the clout to be a proactive effective player towards the agency’s goals. Currently each department director sets goals for the year independently of IT with technology often not being a factor in those goals. The IT department submits their goals too often with no interaction of the other department technology needs. Frequently, the IT department goals change in reaction to the needs of the rest of the agency, which has led to a communication breakdown of IT in the past. For, example the agency independently decided to purchase Tablet devices prior to consulting the CIO and technical team not realizing that their current infrastructure did not support it making the devices completely ineffective. It was resolved the next budget cycle the following year but it created a perception problem throughout the organization as

Often this gap shows a communication breakdown, a language barrier problem and not understanding the value of IT along with IT not being part of the strategy of the organizations goals. This often leads to negative perceptions fueled by experts criticizing the value of IT leading to mistrust. To realign IT and the business process organizations must include CIO by reporting to the CEO a participant in all of the organizations objectives and goals. This can be done by opening the lines of communication, building relationships which results in trust among all executive leaders. This will help the involvement of IT and help educate throughout the organization while providing a creative solutions towards innovation to maintain a competitive advantage. In the case of MRBDDS it was found that realigning the IT department from under Finance to report to the CEO would allow for constant communication, while education and building a relationship of trust to be an effective participant towards the agency’s goals. Implementing best policy and procedures such as ITIL would provide a framework for IT services designed to fill this gap so that the directors and superintendent could fully value IT and see how it will help the agency provide the best support to the Individuals it