Owing to the rapid technological advancement and the subsequent change of roles within the workplace, there is a need to adopt new strategies that will cater for the new requirements necessitated by such technological advancement. The CIO's role in the company has greatly changed to suit the new format defined by those advancements. To cater for these changes, Penguin Company should seek to implement a set of recommendations to avert the possible threats and strains that could potentially harm the operations of the company.
Firstly, the penguin company should seek to recognize the new role of the IT department as a virtually independent organ of the company with a level of autonomy. This implies allowing the company to operate its own budgetary plans a swell as policies that are in line with the entire business (Kangas, 2003). The world of technology is increasingly dynamic and offers business entities no grace period to adapt. In the case where the IT department has to rely entirely on the fixed budget plan of the entire company, there is a threat that the company will be rendered obsolete either at product or system level. An independent budget, on the other hand, will allow the department to implement new infrastructure as soon as there is a technological advancement (Ross et al., 2000).
On the other hand, Penguin Company should seek to set new departmental roles. The CIO cannot effectively handle all IT demands ranging from defining requirements, designing, implementation and testing of the systems while also overseeing the entire departmental operations. IT managers, system administrators, software designers and network administrators with specific knowledge should be given separate tasks and roles to ensure responsibility and efficiency. A hub, such as one for Penguin can function effectively when there are dined roles for each individual. This also plays a key role in creativity and innovation (Monnoyer et al., 2005).
According to Khosrowpour (2000), the company should seek to avoid outsourcing for labor within in the IT department. When this is done, the outsourced workforce should be allowed to work from within the department as entities of the department for the period until which they have complete their task. This reduces the risk for compromise on quality as well as engaging the permanent IT workers in working and learning environment concurrently.
References
Kangas, K. (2003), Business Strategies for Information Technology Management, Hershey, Pa: IRM Press.
Khosrowpour, M. (2000), Organizational Achievement and Failure in Information Technology Management, Hershey, Pa: Idea Group Pub.
Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. (2000), Management Information Systems: Organization and Technology in the Networked Enterprise, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Michael (2013), 2013 CIO Strategy Guide: Top 5 strategic issues http://www.deadmanheartbeat.com/community/best-2013-cio-strategies-top-5/
Monnoyer, E. &Willmott, P. (2005), What IT Leaders do, McKinsey on IT, p2-6.
Ross, J.W &Feeny, D.F (2000), The evolving role of the CIO,” in Framing the Domains of IT Management: Projecting the Future Through the Past, R.W. Zmud, Ed. Cincinnati, OH: Pinn Flex, 2000, pp. 385–402, [Internet] Available from: <http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/2758/SWP-4089-43797710-CISR-308.pdf>[Accessed 26 February 2014].
