IT and business development - a close relationship

The development has changed the role of IT managers – going from mainly making sure IT systems are up-and-running, to becoming key players in business development. The more IT support in a business, the greater responsibility the CIO gets.

They have gone from manually handling tasks such as saving invoices and orders in business systems and customer data in CRM systems, to automated processes where data can be analyzed and processed in real time. Data that used to be stored on the company's own servers has also been moved to cloud-based solutions.

What is required of you as a CIO?

According to analysts, the share of the IT budget used to "keep the light on" (IT operations) will continue to decrease in the future. It is also clear that more and more applications are moving to the cloud.

These trends open up a lot of innovation and flexibility in the IT area, and require a CIO who understands business development and can speak the language of the business.

Some important insights for a modern CIO:

• You need to take on the role of trusted advisor to the business. Get out of the "IT cave" and create a common language that everyone can understand.
• You need to take responsibility for creating an IT-friendly culture in the company. Make your colleagues understand that IT has a key role in business and operational development!
• Be a unifying force. As robotics and automation tools become available to more and more people outside the IT department, it's more important than ever that CIOs can keep all digital initiatives from employees together.

Furthermore, you need to:

• Give the business better control over the business processes to be able to automate and reuse. Optimize work patterns and processes - make sure not to get stuck in technology optimization and interface problems.
• Eliminate hard dependencies on the system, personal and supplier level!