Chief Information Officer

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What Does Chief Information Officer Mean?

The chief information officer (CIO) has an information technology (IT) background and manages an organization’s technology and IT interdepartmental manager communications. The CIO is also responsible for strategizing and facilitating improvement within the organization.

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Techopedia Explains Chief Information Officer

The CIO manages and oversees multiple responsibilities, which are critical to the smooth business operations, including:

  • Monitoring necessary IT purchases and their timeliness
  • Using strategy to improve and streamline all business IT processes, such as implementing a project management software system
  • Improving client relationships via the Internet, such as establishing the organization’s Web presence to sell products (The CIO continually searches for methods of increasing and enabling company revenue and growth through technology.)
  • Establishing an organization’s IT policies and overseeing IT security (This area is usually managed by a computer information security officer (CISO).)
  • Enabling and strategizing interdepartmental information sharing between departments, executive management and interested parties
  • Automating office processes, implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems
  • Managing IT projects through specific program management (Sometimes it is necessary to circumvent a project’s potential to both exceed budget and still never materialize.)

Technology is the primary component of the modern business world. Thus, the CIO must be able to strategize and manage IT projects, ensuring successful business operations.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ??a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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