July 20169 With an almost limitless number of places to begin a digital transformation, picking an effective set of foundational projects is not without riskthe numbers of CDOs are increasing. According to the recruitment consultants' 2015 CIO Survey, 18 percent of companies surveyed in APAC had a CDO. This is up from the 11 percent in 2014. Where are the Opportunities For CIOs?Digital business isn't just about replacing the old with the new. It is about harnessing technology to enhance every aspect of an organisation, reshaping and redefining businesses from the ground up. This is unchartered territory for many CIOs and offers boundless opportunity for innovation. If CIOs can break free from their `comfort zone' in IT, they can add considerable value by leading innovation throughout the entire organisation. Intelligent use of digital technology can help to generate new revenue streams, improve the work environment (in and out of the office) and the productivity of staff, while revolutionising the experience of customers. What Challenges Stand in the CIOs Way? Getting started can often be the biggest barrier to digitization; with an almost limitless number of places to begin a digital transformation, picking an effective set of foundational projects is not without risk. This challenge is compounded by having to maintain operational integrity of the systems already in place. As every CIO knows, keeping critical IT systems running can be difficult and time consuming enough, without trying to innovate.The competition for time with other urgent priorities can mean that digital transformation projects take so long to complete that by the time they are finished they are already out of date. At best, this can help to maintain the status quo, but at worst it can mean that projects are dismissed as failures. One of the most consistently valuable places to start is in ensuring that the IT organisation itself remains relevant, accessible and the easiest to do business with. CIO's must createa more user friendly and intuitive experience for business users. Workers today expect IT services to be every bit as good or better than the services they could consume outside the organisation. In this environment, CIOs must make the process of selecting and engaging with third party technology suppliers as easy as finding and purchasing apps on the app store and hide all the behind the scenes complexity.Realising this vision requires a gear-shift in how CIOs approach IT management. IT will need to go from being viewed as a largely technical necessity to one of the most critical strategic depart-ments, requiring investment to build an agile, high-perfor-mance and efficient platform for innovation.Slow, frustrating and confusing processes, unattractive and overly technical platforms, and hard-to-use applications must be swept aside in favour of a smarter, faster, and easier experi-ence. If CIOs do not em-brace this new territory, they will struggle to win over the workforce. Fortunately the new CIO has recognised this and is already reaping the rewards of adopting a modern, digital approach to IT. Driving Digital Transformation: The Evolving Role of a CIOGavin Selkirk
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