Management Information Systems
IT Leaders: Reinventing IT as a Strategic Business Partner
Business nowadays is connected all the way with the Information Technologies
and is actually a part of it, as the IT sector is prevalent in almost every business,
whether is small, medium – sized, big or a corporation. But, the companies are trying
to improve their IT sectors with including a “reinvented” CIO to their companies. “The
Chief Information Officer of an organization is responsible for a number of roles. Firstly
and most importantly, the CIO must fulfil the role of business leader. As a CIO must
make executive decisions regarding things such as the purchase of IT equipment from
suppliers or the creation of new systems, they are therefore responsible to lead and
direct the workforce of their specific organization. In addition, the CIO is ‘required to
have strong organizational skills’.”
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The best example of how the transformation of IT from a support to a partner role
made a change is maybe the example of the Cincinnati – based Procter & Gamble
(P&G). Their biggest and maybe the most expensive project was reinventing the IT
itself. They have renamed the IT department as Information & Decision Solutions and
the routine IT tasks were outsourced to HP Corp. This newly – formed sector focused
on three main tactics, how to get and distribute data faster, applying consumer –
friendly techniques and innovating and speeding the ways their products gets products
to the market. They were making virtual retail shelves, making comparisons with their
competitors and showing the products to their customers.
