Uma Ganesh
Over the last few decades, we have seen multiple avatars of the managers responsible for IT resources in organisations. It began with EDP manager?as the term denotes, were responsible for data processing, largely for accounts and to some extent sales and inventory functions. Then came the avatar of IS managers, when information within the organisation started getting shared and accessed by various people based on which decisions were beginning to be made.
We started seeing the era of data getting converted to information and hence the custodian or the facilitator for enabling this process was given the title of information
systems manager. Until this phase the function involving data processing or information management was a staff function enabling the line functions and reported into the finance head or the head of operations and rarely as a separate function reporting into the CEO.
With the arrival of distributed information processing and wider access capability of information becoming feasible?thanks to the evolution of technology and the availability of cheaper and effective tools, the possibility of businesses getting re-engineered or transformed began to be realised and all of a sudden we found IT taking centre stage in the organisations. As a result IT management was no longer considered one more staff function but it started assuming strategic importance with many organisations elevating the role to C level and thus the role of chief information officer or chief technology officer was invented.
If it happened to be a company which was in the forefront of creating or using a combination of technologies and that helped shape its value proposition to the market, the title of CTO was adopted. Whereas organisations engaged with processing the information accrued through multiple transactions started appointing CIOs to front their strategy to think of how they could help organisations rethink their strategy on the strength of the information made available.
The new phase we are entering into now, is the era of multiple gadgets being used by the employees to access business related information within or outside the organisation. It is the age of collaboration between vendors, customers and other partners thus sharing and receiving valuable information enabling real time decisions on many fronts or capable of shifting the gears of the business. It is also an era when the organisation and the necessary information ?go? with you wherever and whenever you need it as opposed to the employee having to go to a specific location called ?office? to do his/her transactions.
Thus not only are we finding the business boundaries getting redefined but we are experiencing a dramatic change in the way we define and perform work and transact with one another. This has resulted in rethinking the role and the title of the person who would provide leadership and facilitate the transformational change and hence the new avatar?the chief digital officer (CDO).
The chief digital officer has many responsibilities hitherto not required to be performed. First and foremost the focus is shifting from ?information? to the ?digital front? alluding to the power and diversity of gadgets connected to the digital frontiers and the ability to empower every individual at low costs. Hence the digital landscape throws up several challenges to be addressed. For instance, the responsibility of managing IT applications is no longer restricted to the predefined or named applications developed and owned by the organisation but with collaboration platforms and software as a service options available, different individuals in the organisation may wish to access as per their individual and customised needs. For instance, while the business may continue to run and upgrade its HR systems, the HR team would like to access ?Linked in? for recruitment needs, the sales team may resort to social media to generate leads in addition to carrying out analytics on customer information generated from multiple customer touch points. These are examples of external applications and internally developed applications intersecting each other or throwing up opportunities for integration and leaving it to the individuals to choose their own paths based on their sharp focused just in time information needs.
Similarly the technology touch point is not restricted to just the PCs or other desktops at the workplace, but gadgets such as mobiles, tablets, notebooks and so on are being used by the employees and other stakeholders and companies as a result are also considering policies for BYOD (bring your own devices). As a result of the emergence of plethora of gadgets, applications, collaborative platforms, it is no longer
possible to channelise the flow of information as per the predefined paths and hence the security policy and protection of data and information have become extremely important. It is not just the information and data pertaining to the company but with the customer data that is acquired in the process of interacting with them on social media networks and other platforms, organisations are challenged with having to decide about how to deal with the rights and ownership of such data.
The above mentioned dimensions of the digital phenomenon
relate to the processes or policies that are required to be clearly spelt out to successfully conduct the business affairs which were hitherto not found essential or left to the
quality/operations and legal teams of the company and now the CDO?s views are considered important in all of these matters. In addition to all of this, the most significant role the CDO could play is help charter the new course for the business itself based on the digital pathways and new markets and customers being possible to be touched along the way. The emerging trends in the digital economy offer organisations the opportunity to rethink their business models and continue to remain relevant in the market place. In order to facilitate business model innovation and create new markets, the CDO could play a vital role by understanding the business/customer needs so that the digital connects could be suitably designed and implemented.
In summary, the days of business boundaries being clearly defined and therefore the need for supporting the transactions and information needs within these boundaries are over. The new era calls for the ability to cope with expansion and contraction of the boundaries of business and interactions on an ongoing basis. Hence we need the chief digital officers to be able to visualise these changes and become the guide and coach to the business leaders and work with them closely to create the compelling competitive edge with smart digital strategy. They have to be on the ball all the time to make changes along the way as the digital phenomenon continues to unveil newer and newer pathways, technologies as well as gadgets and we start getting better and better at understanding the psychology of doing business in the digital world.
The writer is CEO, Global Talent Track, a corporate training solutions company
