CIO Job Could One Day Become Obsolete

Chief Information Officers and IT managers, be warned: the prevalence of consumerized IT technology appears to be leaving out many IT department and staff. Because it’s now easy for marketing managers to contact freelance app developers, there is less need to contact IT departments to do the job. 

Some business managers also prefer talking to digital agencies to work on digital projects instead of getting in-house service. 

Ian Finley said marketing managers get external vendors for Android, iPad and iPhone development because it appears that IT departments do not have the necessary skills to do the job. Outsourcing also yields better end products. 

Finley is an analyst from Gartner, Inc., an IT research and advisory firm. 

Business managers also share a common impression that IT departments are slow to adapt in supporting the newer devices. 

Another negative perception is that there is limited interaction between IT managers/CIOs with other department heads. This means business leaders are forced to learn technical information from different sources like books, family members, counterparts in other business, consultants, their agencies, etc. 

Many IT departments also prefer creating business tools applicable to Windows desktop. Many employees, however, feels these tools are not appealing or user-friendly, especially if they are just as familiar with iOS applications. 

And if an IT department is able to provide internal app development, it still needs to prioritize other responsibilities like mobile data security, software upgrades, etc. 

It remains to be seen whether CIOs and IT managers would still be relevant in the next five years. Industry observers, however, believe that the CIO job will vanish soon.