3 big questions for IT leadership in 2019

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The CIO role is expanding both in depth and breadth. There isn’t a business strategy today, in any industry, that doesn’t require some element of technology, whether it’s building an app, or providing customer insights in each and every touch point in the organization. Technology is a critical element of all strategies, so CIOs must find ways to optimize how they run the organization and spend more time deciding where to help the business change, improve, and most importantly, grow revenue. Digital transformation will continue, and our customers expect it. We have become impatient when, as a customer, an application doesn’t know who we are, or if acquisitions are not integrated from a customer experience perspective. All CIOs are expected to deliver this exceptional experience at a time when many have legacy applications — combined with data privacy and security expectations — so it can be a challenge. But it’s the reality of our customer and shareholders’ expectations.

Sheila Jordan, CIO, Symantec Corp.

The Changing Role of the CIO, WSJ CIO Journal, December 20, 2018

Three big questions you need to be asking yourself going into 2019:

1. Where is the data to support transformation activities?

• Does your organization have a Data Catalog? Is it usable by both IT and your business partners?
• Does the Data Catalog focus on logical entities and attributes? Mapping thousands of physical tables and columns will not provide the needed productivity.
• Does the Data Catalog map data to the Applications and Integrations (e.g. API’s)? Your team and business partners need to know where data resides and how data flows through the IT ecosystem.
• Does the Data Catalog allow the organization to categorize sensitive data (e.g. PCI, PHI, PII) and ensure that data is given additional scrutiny in the associated Applications and Integrations?

2. Are the solutions and technologies ready?

• Are Customer-facing solutions always on? Expectations are for 24x7 availability.
• Where are the opportunities and gaps?
• Where can the team streamline solutions and remove duplicity?
• What are the roadmaps for solutions and technologies? Are you including business partners and mutually focusing on strategic investments? Do you stratify roadmaps by the TIME (Tolerate, Invest, Migrate, Eliminate) analogy or similar?
• What are the dependencies between solutions and technologies? This is the Dependency Awareness challenge.
• Where do any planned transitions not align? How are you foreseeing and managing the risks of misaligned transitions?

3. Is the IT ecosystem secure?

• Is data encrypted at rest and in transit?
• How secure are your Internet-facing websites and API’s? Do a simple test using Qualys’ SSL Server Test or Mozilla Observatory?
• What technologies are used by Applications and Integrations?
• Are technologies patched? The US House of Representatives report has been released on the Equifax Data Breach and one confirmed attack vector was the use of an older, vulnerable version of Apache Struts.

8folios.com will help you overcome these challenges. We offer a SaaS solution that allows your IT team and business partners to crowdsource the capture, maintenance, and use of the meta data representing the multiple portfolios of your IT ecosystem. Example portfolios include Applications, Data, Integrations, and Technologies.

Download our Guide (one PDF, no registration required, no subsequent heckling!) to learn how we solve five common IT challenges, and how we help manage transitions and risks for better outcomes.

Then take a free Test Drive without us (e.g. 15-minute test drive of our Data Catalog solution), or contact us and we’ll arrange a 30-minute demonstration.

Expectations are increasing. Are you and your team ready?