In an effort to help Malaysian CIOs more efficiently address the challenges associated with surviving and thriving in a rapidly changing and competitive marketplace, the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) will be launching a series of forums and educational workshops in partnership with the technology market research firm IDC.
The CIO Survival Guide program will focus on helping CIO’s not only cope with the rapidly changing technological landscape, but to better equip them to help service their internal customers as well as drive real value for their organization’s external customers. For a CIO to survive and ultimately thrive, they must refocus and become more than just enablers/purveyors of technology across the enterprise; a CIO must become a true champion of business innovation. Topics will look into all layers of the ICT ecosystem, covering issues such as making sense of “Big Data,” simplifying mobility in a multiple device world, coping with role-based transformational requirements and addressing organizational gaps resulting from information overload.
The first of the Survival Guide series will focus on how organizations can improve their ability to be more strategic with IT investments so as to ensure that IT strategy is better aligned to business strategies and goals. Based on the knowledge developed within IDC through the in depth study of the Asia Pacific and worldwide Information Technology prioritization, IDC and MDeC will work with individual CIOs to explore opportunities and address any gaps that occur in each of the competencies.
MDeC Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said, “The CIO Survival Guide is an ideal opportunity for CIOs to gain knowledge and advice on the various issues and challenges to succeed. The first in the series is especially relevant and will place focus on best practices in respective industries.”
“MDeC’s role is to help develop local industry players to ultimately put Malaysia on the global map as a technology and business hub. We are committed to building the capability of our infrastructure, developing the capacity of IT professionals and the credibility of local players. The CIO Survival Guide is a good example of developing the capacity of IT professionals to compete in the global marketplace,” he continued.
Simon Piff, Associate Vice President, Enterprise Infrastructure, IDC Asia/Pacific notes, “The challenge facing most CIOs is that the true value of the work they do only manifests itself in the efficient creation, capture and access by the business of the data that underlies all IT. However, in order to provision efficient access to the information that lies within the data, CIOs have to focus their energies on infrastructure that, to many business users, is an abstract layer away from what the business perceives as important. The most efficient organizations have adopted new processes and procedures that enable a transformation of the perception of IT, from cost centre to strategic business contributor, and it is IDC’s intent to help Malaysian organizations understand the current landscape and establish a clear path to adopting transformative IT strategies where relevant.”
The results of the Transformative Index permit IDC the opportunity to provide specific feedback to organizations about how either strategy or process in each of these areas of ICT, Information, Infrastructure and Facilities, can be improved to align more succinctly with the business requirements, whilst at the same time providing a benchmark against organizations within the country.
Selected Malaysian CIOs will work with both MDeC and IDC to participate in a summit to be held inJune of 2013. Participants at this year’s summit, entitled The Information Enabled Enterprise will be given the chance to benchmark their competencies against their peers across Malaysian industries as well as to interact with other IT leaders in order to gain insight into some of the available best practices.