Should CIOs Lead Small Business Technology Strategy

There is no doubt that the CIO (Chief Information Officer) position in any company would naturally be expected to contribute to the company IT strategy. The question is how much autonomy should that person have when it comes to committing resources. Like so many other business decisions, the answer depends on the skill set that person brings to the job and the needs of the company.

Information technology impacts availability of financial resources, efficiency of the organization, and the types of day-to-day activities that engage the workforce. With such a broad reach tied to information decisions, it is vital that the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) must work with the CIO in developing IT strategies. One way to look at a business is that it must determine the “how, what and why” of the company’s needs, now and in the future. The strategic needs of the company operations and personnel can be looked at as the “what and why”. So much of business solutions come out of the IT space that often falls to the CIO to weigh in heavily as to the “how”. Here’s an example.

We live in a data-driven world. Information is the lifeblood of performance and that means being connected to your prosects while you are growing and servicing your existing customer base. As CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) has grown, businesses are learning how many interactions, or touchpoints it takes before a prospect turns into a customer. This is critical, since the bigger the prospect pool, the more touchpoints and growth opportunities. Each customer story is unique.

Let’s follow a sample prospect that first heard about your company on social media and visited your web site. While there, the prospect downloaded a case study featuring one of your products. A few weeks later the prospect bought a sample product through your distribution channel to build and test a new prototype version of their product. They called in with a few technical questions. And so the story continues. This example has six touchpoints and it has brought you a prospect. But, did you have a way to capture and connect all of those touchpoints? Would it be helpful to know the story that led up to that technical call? Is this what your company is prepared to deliver? Does there have to be some internal training to help inside sales and technical support to recognize these connections?

With this example it’s easy to see that the CIO needs to lead the “why”, whereas the rest of the strategy is more of a shared activity. The dangers to the company if the balance isn’t right are:

• Systems that are overbuilt or underutilized
• Budget overruns
• And most importantly, a lack of buy-in

Coming back to the question in the title of this paper, the answer is a usually yes, with a few qualifying comments:

• They are not in love with the tech just because it’s cool
• The implications for the budget are understood and agreed to
• They are prepared to work with the necessary people to build new workflows
• Security doesn’t fall by the wayside while focusing on internal operations

With the right team leader and good communication it will seem like anything is possible.

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