What's in a name?
As soon as you hear an analyst, consultant, academic or supplier pontificating to an audience of Brits about CIOs, you know...
One IT director confided to me that the title "information officer" has unfortunate connotations over here - it is a euphemism for librarian. And "chief librarian", however accurate that title may be, is not one that many IT professionals relish.
If you look at job titles in marketing or finance, you will find that they are pretty well standardised and generally intelligible to most managers. The titles "marketing director" or "finance director" are ubiquitous. However, when we turn to the titles of those who are responsible for IT, in a sample of 660 major organisations in Computer Weekly's 500 Club, we find an unintelligible jumble.
There are, for example, information services directors, information systems directors, management information services directors, IT directors, IT controllers, and a mere handful of CIOs.
In fact, in that sample, there were only four CIOs. Surprisingly, there were also four data processing managers - an old title that has survived into the 21st century.
This suggests a lack of clarity within organisations about what the IT function is really supposed to achieve. Moreover, when comparing these companies with a comparable sample (of 643) from four years ago, there are disturbing trends.
The number of IT heads with "director" in their title has remained constant (40%) but, whereas 35% reported to their chief executives five years ago, only 24% do today; and while 25% reported to finance directors then, about 30% do today. In several companies finance directors are actually in charge of IT - probably as a consequence of outsourcing.
With an increasing number of IT directors reporting to those most likely to focus on cost before value, the need for strong communication skills is greater than ever.
