Every Business Needs a CIO

By Bret Jones, PolarStar Practice Manager

What’s the role of a good Chief Information Officer (CIO)?  He or she is someone that has the experience and maturity to consider how a company’s information system serves the needs of the company’s business.  A good CIO is fluent in both the world of technology and also the strategic world of corporate management. Being conversant in both spheres is often difficult.

Executives live in a business-focused world and IT specialists live in a technology-focused world. These worlds each tend to have their own lingo, priorities, and philosophies, and communicating effectively between these worlds can be difficult. The difficulty can easily spiral into a situation where only the minimum level of communication occurs.

When an IT specialist does not understand business drivers, he/she is forced to make decisions based on incomplete information which can lead to technology spending what does not meet business needs.  When an executive team makes a business decision without understanding the technology needed to support that decision, the result can be a network stretched to the point of vulnerability.

The key to resolving the conflict is for a company to make sure that someone is thinking like a CIO. A good CIO:

• Establishes and maintains rapport with the company’s top executives in different disciplines.
• Formulates long and short term strategies that form the underpinnings for the company’s decisions regarding its IT infrastructure.
• Meets current business needs with the right technology, which involves keeping abreast of the latest technology developments, and being current with the company’s business issues.
• Anticipates future business needs and plans for the company’s IT infrastructure to accommodate growth as economically as possible.
• Manages costs.  If done effectively, it’s even possible to attribute added profitability for the company to wise IT decisions.

What if you don’t have someone on your staff who, as a CIO, can reconcile the business and technology sides of your own business?  You can bring in an experienced partner that can help.  Polar has been filling this role with its clients for over 25 years.

As part of our PolarStar service, we hold quarterly business reviews with clients from a CIO perspective.  In these reviews, we show our clients how to match technology to their business needs both in the present and the future, and how the most effective use of technology involves making the wisest investment decisions. 

Our quarterly PolarStar client reviews are run by one of our Practice Managers, who takes notes and passes action items on to the appropriate team members at Polar Systems, who in turn formulate action plans for the next quarter. The Practice Manager also insures that a written follow-up report is provided to the client.

Quarterly reviews typically cover:

• What’s happened in the last quarter, including a listing of problems identified and solved, and a discussion of the client’s current needs.
• Discussion of any changes in how the client is handling business information (e.g., new document management systems, personnel additions). Such changes can indicate the need for future IT development projects or capacity changes.
• Review of long-term plans for the business. This can give us an idea of the macro factors that can affect the company’s IT architecture in the future – things that require long-term advance planning.
• We also ask for an honest assessment of Polar’s performance at this meeting, including how we can be a better partner with the client in the future. We ask specifically how well the client feels that we have been communicating with them, and we ask how our people have been performing on an individual basis.

Because of the steps we take as part of our proactive PolarStar service, IT problems are avoided and companies grow more smoothly and cost-effectively. We prove this to our customers every quarter.

So, a question to ask is: “Is your IT resource looking out for your business needs?”  If you need help from a CIO perspective, ask Polar Systems about our new PolarStar service.

Bret Jones is the PolarStar Practice Manager, responsible for the daily management and development of PolarStar services. Bret has been with Polar Systems since 1998. He is a skilled Network Engineer and holds a degree in Psychology from Linfield College.