As I noted in an earlier blog, my scope is in three main areas: IT-enabled business change, information management and the CIO role. Recently, I have been focusing on developing knowledge, qualifications and workshops in the first two areas, both of which impact the CIO.

IT-enabled business change

The new ISEB foundation qualification has been launched and I am now writing a book on the subject. It has been challenging and enlightening to capture the corporate, academic and consulting experience of doing business change in one place.

One of the challenges faced by CIOs who are moving into this area is to define the scope and skills required to succeed. My view based on this book and a new course we are developing at Henley Management College is that business change professionals need to be competent in four different areas: processes, people, information and technology. This is starting to happen but very few CIOs and their teams are equally comfortable in all these areas and how they fit together.

Information Management

The Information Management model developed by the IM profession group (including members from Yell, Met Police, MOD, IBM, BCS, CILIP and Henley) has been well received. People seem to like the key message of the model which is that information management has been split into four different worlds due to different technology, language and skills. We need to find ways to integrate these worlds.
A new ISEB qualification in Information Management is being proposed. I am presenting a draft syllabus at a workshop on 6 July. Organisations and individuals are being asked how they can contribute to the development. It’s another potential challenge/opportunity for CIOs to focus on the ‘I’ as well as the ‘T’.