How CIOs can deliver the best service in the industry

The entire idea for any company is to be the best in the industry. But a CIO’s question remains: Do our products stand out in the market and do we deliver the best in our operation space? Earlier the industry motto was providing products and services. But today, services is king. Therefore, the challenge is how IT can enable change, said S. Raghunath, dean and professor, IIMB, addressing the audience at CIO100 2017. He went on giving insights on the shift in the industry and ways to excel at it.

Using an example of Kimberly Clarke’s smart restrooms—that eliminates hygiene problems beforehand and saves costs with virtual restroom assistant—Raghunath specified that personalized experience is what a consumer wants. “And all of this is based on transparency, access, dialogue and risk reduction,” said Raghunath. In the whole journey, digitization and cognitive computing supports the whole logic of providing value to the customer.

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All the above when done, the journey of CIO to chief intelligence officer is successful. When that change happens, delivering products as services and delivering them better than the best in the market space is a child’s play. When you are in the space of optimizing business and operating on an outcome-based model, there are a few things that should be kept in mind. Data with the customer must be accessible for the CIO as he is a service provider. Some IT/ITeS operations should be reorganized too. “CIO is no more on the sidelines and he/she should be central to management. Merge other company operations with IT, and align business with IT,” he says.