* By Eduardo Costa
In challenging and critical moments like the current one, with an increasingly demanding market and looking for solutions to face adversity, it is essential to count on the support of professionals who positively differentiate the business on this journey. But, how to act directly in this vein, reaching the driving force?
Through the transition of a new profile of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), who stopped looking only at the internal technological demands of companies and started to attend to the business. In other words, this professional is the great orchestrator of the evolution from Information Technology (IT) to Business Technology (TN).
We already came from a scenario where digitally born companies such as Uber, Airbnb and IFood taught us about technology being an integral part of building their business and not just an accessory part.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, this digitalization mentality has intensified because organizations have had to suspend their activities in the physical environment and quickly adapt to the online universe with existing technologies. Here, we have another example of how the business has aligned itself with technology, when, in fact, it should be the opposite: IT being at the service of the business, anticipating needs and developing solutions for demands that were not met until then.
Faced with this scenario, digitization becomes a path of no return and companies need to reflect on the level of maturity of their IT departments so that it is aligned with the business. Such an evolution is forcing this reinvention of CIOs, who need to change internal processes and the demands placed on them, which are enormous. It is not enough just to manage the internal demands of the day-to-day, but to continually improve to produce more and better.
The characteristics of the new CIO profile go beyond the technological and process management domain. These hard skills must be added to the personal and relationship skills, which will make contact with the different departments of the company, reducing the problems caused by Shadow IT and its unofficial conducts, and the gaps with customers in order to accelerate the plan and the deadline of the projects. In other words, the IT area starts to support the development of applications for the market and not just support its internal structure.
Together, professional and personal skills form a complete and balanced professional, with great qualities to act in any type of situation in the work environment and in turbulent times to reposition market strategies.
And the next crisis, amazingly, is already knocking on our door. With the increase in digitization and data leakage growing at the same rate, we already have a scenario of penalties related to privacy breaches that are expected to cost companies US$ 8 billion worldwide by the year 2025, according to Gartner estimates. To avoid these fines, it will also be necessary for the CIO to act in mitigating risks.
Therefore, the new CIO profile must be a business leader, on par with the other executives of the company. And this scenario directly affects what we call IT today. The nomenclature will likely be renamed TN (Business Technology), a name that clearly demonstrates its integration into the business.
*Eduardo Costa is CIO of SONDA Brasil, integrator of Information Technology solutions and leader in Digital Transformation in the region.
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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