A CIO's guide to relevancy during recession

David M Williams
Friday, 27 February 2009 17:00

IT Industry - Market

Actually, it's a recurring argument as to where the CIO sits on the org chart. In a different economic climate I might instead be penning a think piece, "Should the CIO report to the CEO or CFO?"

Figures and surveys indicate that where the CIO reports speaks volumes about a company's perspective on IT.

If management think IT are just there to "keep e-mail running" then the greater likelihood is that the CFO oversees the tech team.

If that's what IT is for in such a company then the CFO probably is a sensible choice of manager, effectively dividing the operational and administrative aspects between CEO and CFO.

While having less personality and charisma than the festering corpse of a dead rat, accountants do actually know a thing or two about running systematic procedures that run on a schedule, and about clearly defined task lists.

If, on the other hand, the CIO reports to the CEO then the greater likelihood is the company views IT as having an enabling role and is there to produce efficiency gains, open new markets and generally hold a strategic place.

For this type of thing the Finance team can be stymieing, with their lack of ability to deal with abnormal situations. Often it seems accountants hide behind "week end" and "month end" to avoid doing anything out of the ordinary.

Indeed, Finance has an apparent desire to retain the status quo even if it is inefficient or could be automated.  Surprisingly cost considerations aren't necessarily a motivator for the bean counters. Well, except for periodical nonsensical suggestions you could cut your branch office data network costs if you used a residential ADSL plan instead.

I’ve started so I’ll finish: one other Finance trait that grinds gears is when they adopt the view that IT is only there to support the rest of the business, ironically forgetting that Finance, too, sits on the non-operational side of the fence.

After all, consider the payroll officer or accounts payable clerk. They're not generating a shred of revenue - quite the opposite, but the average accountant doesn't view them with as much suspicion or fear or mistrust or disdain.

Let's not simply bag out the accountants. IT often doesn’t help its own reputation. Tinkering with stable servers and experimenting with policy settings on the fly can, and does, result in lost work, confusion, downtime and dissatisfaction.

And, let's be honest, the reason the joke "Accountants use their personality for contraception" doesn't work for IT geeks is because the geeks are much less renown for being in situations where contraception becomes an issue!

I digress. The point is the IT head honcho may have a different boss and in the past I've worked for CFOs and I've worked for CEOs. Twice I worked for the CFO and the CEO liked what I did so much I was elevated to be in his line of reporting. Once I went backwards and got moved under Finance.

Nevertheless, it's all moot in this day and age. No matter what's on paper the CFO wields the clout in a recession and that sucking sound you hear is the CIOs status flying away like cockroach droppings up a vacuum cleaner.

Yet, IT can, and does, add value.