Forrester Research figures that CIOs currently spend 60% of their time as “chief maintenance officers” — that is, they have to devote several hours a day to making sure that all the IT infrastructure and applications are running smoothly.
But Forrester envisions a shift to an era of what it calls empowered business technology (EBT), in which business units are more involved in deciding what their technology needs are and how to achieve them.
This transition would greatly reduce the number of hours that CIOs spend as chief maintenance officers and allow them to devote a good deal more time and energy managing things like risk, vendors and innovation.
Here’s the breakdown of current and just-beyond-the-horizon CIO duties, as Forrester sees it:
Current CIOs
Chief maintenance officer: 60%
Chief vendor manager: 10%
Chief enterprise architect: 10%
Chief risk officer: 10%
Chief innovation officer: 5%
Chief demand officer: 5%
Empowered Business Technology CIOs
Chief maintenance officer: 25%
Chief vendor manager: 20%
Chief enterprise architect: 20%
Chief risk officer: 15%
Chief innovation officer: 15%
Chief demand officer: 5%
Source: Forrester Research, July 2011
