Technology Gaps

Guest Author:Dominic Turner

The CIO Perspectives event at the Palmer House in Chicago this past week was attended by many c-level executives representing a variety of industries; from healthcare to food and beverage services. The event was produced by CIO in partnership with the CIO Executive Council.

One key underlying theme and question that was raised was “How can I get greater actionable intelligence from all the data sources I have access to?” In speaking with a executive from State Farm, they confirmed that it is indeed their key concern these days. They want to know how they can harness customer buying behaviors from visitors to their website, and turn this in to intelligence on what they may buy in the future.

Overall, CIO’s in attendance seemed to mostly be concerned with the perception of their organizations in the overall corporate structure. Are they just a major cost center or a strategic partner providing vision and direction for the corporations of which they are a part of. The body of attendees felt that their IT Organizations fell somewhere in the middle of that spectrum  – mainly as a trusted partner to their executive peers but had the desire to move their groups further to the fight to being viewed as a strategic partner.

So, how do you feel technology can help address these gaps?

-Dominic