The CIOs First 30 Days, Part II

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Strategy  

Part II- Assessing the IT Organization - Culture, Talent, Infrastructure & Maturity

This is the second installment of the three part series on the strategies and tactics a newly appointed CIO can use during their first 30 days on the job to help insure their success. In this installment we will be looking at assessing how the state of the IT organization can impact how the CIO shapes their "go-forward" strategy for IT. Once again, the answers to each question are accompanied with strategy and success roadmap-shaping suggestions and guidelines.

How big are the IT staffing levels, compensation and operating budget compared to other departments?

Question: Is IT smaller than other departments?
Strategy: Here you might want to understand why IT is spending less than other groups.  Be sure to look at overall budget on a per-capita basis to insure that you are measuring like numbers. If possible, get the budgets of other departments so you can identify specific areas where IT spends less. Typically, IT payrolls are larger per-capita than other departments because it costs more to field a highly talented team of technology professionals.  So if your payroll is smaller in this area, it could indicate a bias that is negative towards IT. Regardless of the reason, a small budget can be an asset as there is room to grow and thus you should begin to grow it, …

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