Improved CIO communication can optimize IT investments

Unfortunately for chief information officers, their hard work and commendable achievements often go unnoticed by corporate personnel.The very nature of the information technology field can sometimes make it seem as if tech professionals’ work were thankless. It is an IT department’s job to make sure that everything runs smoothly, and the only times when other branches of a business acknowledge these representatives’ presence is usually if something goes awry.Whenever CIOs and their staff members are at the top of their game and doing an exemplary job, other executives throughout their companies do not recognize that these tech professionals are there. To prevent themselves from flying too far under the radar, IT personnel should be sure to speak with other portions of their corporations. This will allow for clear communication, which will enable CIOs and their team to keep everyone informed about the exact strides being made in terms of a firm’s advancements in infrastructure and technological tools.Keep professionals posted about IT performanceAccording to CIO.com, increased communication is especially important to show the necessity for keeping an IT department fully staffed and funded. In many cases, individuals working on the business end of companies are not exactly sure as to what incorporating technological solutions into operations entails. They may not be aware that there is more to it than just installing a couple of applications and calling it a day.Tech professionals have to fight an unending uphill battle when it comes to maintaining and securing any innovations that their organizations have decided to adopt. Because executives in other positions of power such as CEOs and CFOs are not always familiar with IT’s constant struggle, CIOs should be certain to straighten this out.”There’s this misconception that you stand up your servers and then they run in perpetual motion from that point forward with no care and feeding involved,” said Chris Brady, CIO for NextGear Capital, according to the news source.Granted, although this perception of IT services is not correct, it is not entirely outlandish. Technology has come a long way. With every sophisticated development made to solve some solution, it becomes easier for tech professionals to use them.With that said, no matter how advanced a technological tools may be, they cannot run on their own and are even prone to glitches. They need to be monitored, protected and maintained by talented CIOs and professionals to guarantee that businesses will not come to a standstill every time there is an outage.Let tech accomplishments be known for better budgetingIn light of all this, chief information officers who are leading a team of high-performers need to keep other executives up to date about the extensive work that they are carrying out behind the scenes. This is particularly key when it comes to securing a sufficient amount in budgeting and resourcing for their departments.”Executives are sensitive to money and to the total head count devoted to the IT department” Joel Dolisy, CTO at SolarWinds, told CIO.com. “Providing that information on a regular basis is primordial, because otherwise people think the money is going into a black hole.”With an apparent lack of communication between CIOs and those who are higher up in the company ranks, IT executives could be doing their departments an injustice. Not only will any tech professionals slaving away to ensure efficiency throughout businesses’ operations not receive any credit, but they also may not acquire the funding they need to keep their IT functions on track.”There’s a clear danger that if IT is not communicating well with the rest of the executive team and providing transparency into day-to-day operations, a lot of mundane tasks will be trivialized,” Dolisy added. “At that point, it’s difficult to deal with. The only thing that comes from the rest of the executive team is pressure to downsize the budget and downsize the number of heads, and only work on the new shiny projects. That’s a recipe for disaster.”IT investments crucial for company profitsInformationWeek reported that this will prove to be a disadvantage to an organization as a whole. Without making further IT investments, companies may not be wasting excessive amounts of money, but they are also impeding their ability to make optimal profits.While it is not advisable for corporations to spend too much of their financial resources in updating their tech infrastructure and functions, they can also miss out if they completely refrain from doing so. The news source explained that companies have to strike a balance in terms of budgeting for their IT departments.By speaking with their CIOs, business executives can make a plan based on the performance of their tech staff – not on any assumptions made about the state of their innovative solutions. Instead, everyone can sit down and assess which portions of a firm’s tech operations need less or more funding. This will minimize waste, while ensuring that companies are not passing up prime opportunities to maximize their profits.