From Technology Steward to Business LeaderComputerWorld has been running a series on CIOs as a part of this series they have a report on "The Changing role of the CIO", which primarily focussed on Deloitte Consulting titled "CIO 2.0: The Changing Role of the Chief Information Officer."

Some excerpts:

Context:Unprecedented new governmental regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, increased global threats and a higher degree of risk have magnified the importance of information technology. - Deloitte Report (CIO2.0)

The report says that CIOs are at the very epicenter of business transformation - either enabling or inhibiting change. "Today's CIOs are being asked to transform companies through information technology, a transformation that requires breaking old habits, learning new ways to do business and developing an unwavering focus on growing and preserving shareholder value," says Ann Senn, head of the CIO consulting practice at Deloitte Consulting in New York.

Pressing Issues:IT AND THE LAW: With increasingly complex regulations emerging, CIOs need to design and build business processes, systems and organizational structures that not only are compliant with today's rules, but also anticipate the direction of future regulations.
BUSINESS INTEGRATION: Information and technology are levers for trimming and simplifying business processes and organizations and building stronger, more effective partnerships and supplier relationships.
VALUE: CIOs must work with their fellow business leaders to shift projects and assets to areas most likely to generate returns, and shed or streamline assets and operations that are destroying value.
SECURITY AND RISK: Need to identify threats, balance risk and cost, and test vulnerabilities, plans and assumptions to ensure the safety of goods, people, information and facilities.

CIO Opportunities / Challenges:Business Alignment: Building a close partnership with the business and even taking a leadership role by showing the business execs what IT can do for them and the bottom line. Above all else, CIOs say to their peers: Don't be an order-taker. The CIO's role has become more strategic than ever. Smart CIOs are educating other CXOs about the power of technology (as well as its limits). The teaching role includes everything from advising CXOs on a new technology for strategic advantage to adding a technology reality check to a business discussion.But CIOs and their staffs will need to brush up on their finance skills if they want to talk credibly with other senior executives.

Managing Your Employees: Of course, great strategists need a great team to execute the work. CIOs must make Recruitment and retention part of their jobs so they have that great team. And then CIOs need to become chief motivational officers to keep their staff fired up.

Managing your Vendors: If you don't manage your vendors, they'll manage you. You have to take control of the relationship with tough-but-fair negotiations and build a winwin relationship with vendors. The same principles apply to outsourcing deals, except that they require even more due diligence. And you need to make sure that the outsourcing relationship evolves to meet changing business requirements.

Prashanth RaiTag(s):CIO