CIOS ARE KEY AS BUSINESS AND TECH HAVE BECOME INTERTWINED

According to Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran, CTO, Kyndryl India, ClOs are responsible for successful post-Covid business outcomes in the face of all the changes that took place during this period.

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HOW ARE CIOS LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY TO ENABLE THEIR COMPANY'S VISION?

Because business and technology have become intertwined, CIOs are also key corporate strategists. Today's CIO is the custodian of innovation more than being the provider of internal IT, and is hence responsible for the relevance of the company's business model.

For example, the CIO of a manufacturing company in circa 2023 will be thinking of how digital twins and industrial metaverse can advance shop floor digitization.

An insurance company's CIO will want to understand the implications of blockchain on customer experience and the corporate bottom-line. A telecom CIO could be blueprinting the use of emerging drone technologies to automate the maintenance of cellular towers.

HOW DID COVID IMPACT THE ROLE OF THE CIO?

Covid shifted several paradigms ranging from employee work models to customer buying behaviour. And CIOs are responsible for successful post-Covid business outcomes in the face of these changes.

The pandemic validated the value proposition of low touch automation. One consequence has been the mass popularity of Al and the heightened awareness of how ML can solve complex challenges. Another after effect is the acceleration of cloud adoption and the ensuing leverage of software-defined operations-from scalability and on-demand consumption to digitized business continuity and data services. The CIO has been in the middle of all this, anchoring and catalysing the 'new normal'.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CIO, CTO AND CISO?