BAU is over - CIO's need to grab centre stage

There has never been a more important time to be a CIO.

The rules have changed. The role of IT has changed. Its all about what we do next and its all about doing it at pace. IT is now more critical than ever in the creation of business strategy, the old ways of delivering technical projects were way too slow and expensive - we need to evolve faster and the COVID 19 pandemic proved that we can.

When we went into lock-down a sector of workers stepped up their game - unnoticed, not classified as key workers but key never the less.

IT teams pulled together and kept whole chunks of the workforce afloat - digital transformation leapt forward, VPN/VDI/BYOD and video conferencing were embraced and technical teams moved mountains to deliver secure remote working solutions - some IT teams worked minor miracles in a matter of days - they did really well. But it didn't end there as the workforce settled in to new ways of working IT teams were faced with a growing number of requests to improve workers home set ups and provide access to complex systems and software off site. Teams were inundated with an uplift in fire fighting due to the weaknesses remote-working exposed in many organisations technology stacks. Despite the lack of time available to plan, IT teams began delivering innovative solutions within the confines of the technologies they had at their disposal. Laptops became the new loo roll, applications were augmented with bolt on cloud solutions to enhance collaboration, suppliers rolled out new functionality that led to inevitable glitches. IT budgets were increased, IT staff became more visible and we have come to realise that BAU as we knew it is over and it is never coming back.

It is at this point that good IT departments will take the time to reflect - create a strong strategy that capitalises on the trans-formative nature of this crisis and the valuable lessons learned. This is the point when IT departments stand centre stage and have the ear of business leaders. There has never been a more important time to be a CIO. This is the chance to get across the concept that the digital workplace needs to be given the same architectural care and attention as the physical workplace. This is the chance to get the principles for design agreed and to develop a strong strategy that strengthens the technologies needed to become more flexible. Good investment decisions will enable an organisation to weather the next crisis with more flare and importantly avoid design mistakes that may inhibit how flexible you can be.

Standardise, connect and converge technologies into one digital ecosystem.